“Then came a blinding flash, a deafening roar,
And dissonant cries of terror and dismay;
Blood trickled down the river’s reedy shore,
And with the dead he lay.”
A starlit sky, dead silence all around, only the river’s murmur
breaking it. The moonbeams shining on the forest-path mark all the
shadows with a dazzling light, bringing weird and fantastic outlines
forth, where brush and hedges line the dusty road, and making the
parched fields, almost destitute of vegetation, shine like burnished
sheets of dead white light. And along this road came slowly, with
muffled tramp, a little body of men, their dark figures darker by
contrast with the gleaming barrels of their rifles, which the moonlight
seemed to tinge with silvery fire. They came along so quietly, so
noiselessly, now hidden from view in a curve of the road, and now
appearing again. And still all was quiet.
And then a little tongue of flame ran quickly and noiselessly up into
the black darkness; and in a moment more all was blaze and smoke. The
work was done,――the bridge was destroyed.
Down in the road around the bridge the men were grouped,――the fire
giving them a ruddy coloring,――a tint of blood. Two figures were
especially prominent, and seemed to be directing their movements.
“Well, Tom,” said Ned, “does this remind you of bonfires in the yard at
Cambridge?”
“Not much,” said Tom, dispiritedly.
“Why, Tom, what is the matter with you?” asked Ned, anxiously.
“I don’t know,” said Tom. “I feel nervous and apprehensive.”
“I ought not to have let you come with me,” said Ned. “It was weak and
selfish in me to consent. You are feverish and excited, Tom; and you
ought to have rested.”
“Just as if I was going to let you go off into danger without me!” said
Tom.
“I am much obliged to you for the care you take of me,” said Ned;
“but you see the work has been done without any trouble. The rebs are
two miles away; and this will prevent them from making a detour, and
getting in our rear if we advance.”
“Ned,” said Tom, “do you think that the Professor will bring my mother
on to Washington with him?”
“Think!” said Ned. “I am sure he will, and that, when we return to
camp, we shall find a message from her to you. Perhaps he’ll charter a
train, and bring on a host of your female admirers, victorious masher
of female hearts!”
“Don’t rough me, Ned,” said Tom.
“Well, now I know that you are going to be sick, Tom,” said Ned, “when
you take that piteous tone, instead of answering me back. By Jove,
there goes a beam, crash; and look, the fire has entirely died out of
the other. We can’t leave the work half done in this way, we must hurry
and finish it. The rebel pickets are probably back in camp by this
time. Tom, order four men, and row that boat over to the other side for
me.”
“Why, Ned!” asked Tom, “what are you going to do?”
“The fire has died out over there,” said Ned, “and the other beam is
left. Here, O’Brien, I want that axe. I am going to cross on it, and
cut it off where it is charred. Get the boat ready at once, captain.”
“But, Ned, that is very dangerous,” interposed Tom.
“Obey orders!” said Ned, impatiently and angrily; and Tom, with a
reproachful glance, left him at once.
Only a slender beam now hung over the flood. On this Ned started to
cross, balancing himself with the axe, the group of men watching him
eagerly. An inch to the right or to the left, and all was lost. The
flames were decreasing now, yet still the beam stood. Then the boat
started out slowly across the river. The attention of all was turned
towards it for an instant; and, in the mean time, Ned had almost gained
the other side. One, two, three blows on the charred part of the beam,
and it wavered and fell with a crash as Ned leaped lightly upon the
bank. He waved his hand triumphantly, and ran down to meet the boat,
which, more than half way across, was now struggling with the powerful
current, and yet was visibly nearing the shore. He waved his cap, and
started down the river-bank into the copse to meet it. Only two steps,
two little steps down the bank, and from the tangled foliage a powerful
hand grasped his throat, the cold barrel of a pistol was pressed to
his cheek, and a voice fairly hissed the whisper into his ears:――
“Silence! or you are a dead man!”
And for reply, with one mighty effort, he threw off the hand; and, as
the pistol-shot resounded through the air, his voice rang out, clear
and strong on the still night:――
“BACK TO THE CAMP, FOR YOUR LIVES! THE ENEMY IS UPON US!”
In an instant more he was seized; and one of the men who had crept upon
him said:――
“Damn you, you hound! you have spoiled all our plans.”
Then Ned smiled serenely, and looked calmly at the man.
“But we shall bag four or five of them, any way, lieutenant,” said one
of the men,――“those in the boat down there.”
And then Ned started and turned pale; but it was too late. Tom and two
others had already landed, and were in the hands of two or three of the
rebel pickets.
“O Tom, Tom!” cried Ned, “why did you not turn back?”
But Tom did not answer, and only stared vacantly and stupidly at Ned.
“The captain’s sick, sir,” said one of the men who had been captured.
“Drunk, more likely,” said the rebel lieutenant, with an oath.
“He was taken in the boat,” continued the man.
“It is as I feared,” said Ned; “he is in a high fever, as I was.” At
this the rebel lieutenant drew back. “Oh! it is not contagious,” said
Ned, with a world of scorn in his voice; and the rebel lieutenant
resumed his former position.
“Tom, don’t you know me?” asked Ned. “Oh, what will be the end of this,
I wonder!”
“Libby Prison,” sneered the lieutenant.
“Tell my mother to come and see me at Libby,” said Tom, half stupidly.
Upon this the chorus naturally raised an insulting shout, and one
poor brute indulged in some ribald remark. In an instant, Tom had
struck him across the face; in another instant, Tom himself lay on
the ground senseless and stunned by a blow from the butt of one of
the rebel rifles. It was at this instant, while Ned in anguish and
desperation was struggling with his captors, that the sound of horses’
hoofs was heard coming nearer and nearer, and three or four officers
rode quickly up. The central figure of the group was a compact, sinewy
man, of medium height, with a full, untrimmed beard, and a face, as Ned
could see by the dim light of the fire which some of the men were now
lighting a little distance off, furrowed with the lines of thought, of
care, and anxiety. The eyes were large and expressive, the features
clearly cut, and the mouth, even though partially hidden by a thin
mustache, showed indomitable firmness. A grand head in many respects,
and one which made it evident to Ned that he was in the presence of the
dreaded Stonewall Jackson.
“What is the matter here?” he asked briefly.
“They have destroyed the bridge, general,” was the reply.
Stonewall Jackson turned, and whispered to one of his companions who
rode away. Then he continued:――
“Are these prisoners?”
“Yes, general,” said the lieutenant,――“these four.”
“A lieutenant-colonel, I see?” said Stonewall Jackson.
Ned simply bowed in reply. Then Stonewall Jackson looked at Tom, and
said:――
“And who is this here?”
At this, Tom half raised himself, and then fell back again.
“May I tell you?” asked Ned.
“Certainly,” said Jackson; “what is it?”
“He is in a high fever, which has been coming on for some time,” said
Ned; “and one of these men struck him with the butt of his rifle.”
“After he had surrendered?” asked Jackson.
“After he was taken prisoner,” said Ned.
“He shall be taken to camp and attended to,” said Stonewall Jackson.
But, when they touched Tom, he uttered a sharp cry of pain; and the men
drew back.
“We will let him remain here, then,” said Jackson, after a word or two
more with his companions. “Lieutenant, you will keep watch here, and
down the river’s bank, until daybreak, and then report at head-quarters
to me with the prisoners. As for you, sir,” he continued, addressing
Ned, “you can remain here through the night with your friend,――under
parole, of course, not to break your bonds. Do you accept?”
“Most thankfully,” said Ned, with a gratitude in his voice and accent
far beyond what his words expressed.
“He is a handsome boy,” said Jackson, looking again at the still
unconscious Tom. “Keep the other prisoners under strict guard,
lieutenant; but treat this gentleman who is under parole with all
possible respect. Hark! what is that? Midnight!”
And, as he paused to listen, the distant sound of bells rang faintly
out upon the air. Midnight; and for an instant utter stillness upon air
and earth and water. And then Tom groaned painfully; and, as Ned bent
anxiously over him, Stonewall Jackson said:――
“I shall see you in the morning, Colonel.” And Ned thanked him once
again; and the noise of the horses’ hoofs came more and more faintly,
and at last died away entirely.
Then Ned knelt down beside Tom, and looked steadily at him. Tom half
opened his eyes, and then closed them again with a weary moan that went
to Ned’s very heart. “Don’t you know me, Tom?” he said.
“I shall see my mother to-morrow,” said Tom, “after waiting two years.
I couldn’t go before,――I couldn’t leave Ned when he was sick.”
Ned hid his face in his hands, and groaned. Tom closed his eyes again,
and seemed to pass into a fitful slumber. The men had built a great
fire a little way apart; and its gleams fell upon Tom’s face, just as
the firelight had done in the Professor’s room, five years before,
when Ned first met him. How well he remembered that night! He laid his
hand on Tom’s hot brow, and smoothed back his tangled hair. How lovely
his face was in this fitful, ruddy glow! How much he had sacrificed
for Ned, and now Ned had ruined him! It was dreadful to Ned. He threw
himself on the grass beside Tom, and put his face on Tom’s shoulder.
“I am going to cut recitation to-day,” muttered Tom. “Hang that old
Ned! He is always vexed about something or other. I’m going to enlist,
mother; I must, you see,――oh, I must, I must, I must! Good-by!”
“Oh, don’t, Tom!” groaned Ned.
And then Tom sat up, and gazed wildly and vacantly at Ned, without a
trace of recognition in his face.
“Why, Professor,” said he. “I couldn’t leave Ned possibly! We’ve been
through everything together; and he might not be cared for properly, if
I were to leave him sick and alone. Mother says that I am right; and I
shall see her to-morrow,――I shall see her to-morrow.”
“It is as I feared,” said Ned, half to himself; “he is in a high
fever. If I can only get him down to the river-bank there, where I can
bathe his head.”
And, putting Tom’s limp arm around his own neck, Ned managed with some
difficulty to carry him a few steps to the river’s brink.
“There, Tom,” he said, “I’ll bathe your head for you, poor fellow!”
“Here is the river,” said Tom; “and we are going to see mother in a
boat. It’s a dangerous thing, Ned, to cross on that beam. OBEY ORDERS!
And now it is too late, too late! God only knows whether I shall ever
see my mother again.” And now, as Tom became quiet once more, Ned sat
there, and bathed his head; and the river continued the noise of its
rushing waters, and the wavelets splashed gently upon the shore, and
against the wooden sides of the boat,――the boat! And now for the first
time Ned saw the means of deliverance within his power. The idea fairly
swept over his mind. To put Tom into the boat, and gain the other side,
would be the work of a few moments only: and it could be done; for the
rebel squad was dispersed along the shore, and the one man who sat by
the fire a few yards off seemed fast asleep. But then, even as the
thought of a possibility of freedom for Tom made him exultant, there
came the recollection of his parole. He still sat by Tom’s side, and
mechanically now smoothed back the hair from his forehead, and as
mechanically repeated to himself, “word of honor, word of honor, word
of honor,” until the very leaves upon the trees seemed to rustle in
rhythm with the cadence; and then, with this dull, heavy oppression on
his mind, the words seemed to turn into French and Latin and Greek, and
to make new and fantastic combinations in his brain. “God help me!” he
groaned. “I am going mad.” And then he knelt and prayed; and still the
river rushed along, and still that one black figure sat there by the
fire, as if half asleep. Then Ned saw him move slowly, and heard him
whisper hoarsely, “Colonel! Colonel!”
“Do you mean me?” asked Ned.
“Yes. Speak softer, and come up here.”
Wondering and confused, Ned obeyed. The man turned a rough, unshaven
face to him, and said:――
“You don’t know me, I see?”
“No,” said Ned.
“I know you, though. Mighty peart you be now; but you wasn’t so three
weeks ago. You was took pretty sick then, and lying in a hospittle.”
“Well, what of it?” said Ned.
“Well, you’re a stoutish kind of man now, ain’t you? But, Lord!” and
the fellow laughed to himself, “I could just chaw you up in no time. I
should kinder like to have a gouge at you, anyway.”
“Thank you,” said Ned; “but if that is all you have to say, I shall
have to leave you, and attend to my friend.”
“You’re a real perlite man,” said the man, in a wondering sort of way;
“and yet you’re a Yank. You must attend to your friend. That’s fair;
and why? Because when you was sick, he took care of you. I see it; I
was in the hospittle likewise at the time. I had just got up as you was
took down. Don’t yer remember me?”
“No,” said Ned, impatiently.
“Well, you give me some fruit and jelly that was sent me one day. I
never had such a good time in my life as eating them things. The
nurse, she says, ‘Don’t waste ’em on him; he’s a rebel,’ she says; and
what did you say? You says, ‘Don’t let’s think nothing about Rebs and
Feds here,’ says you, ‘but let’s forget all about it; and then I liked
you. I like you now.”
“I am glad to hear it,” said Ned; “but I must see to my friend.”
“You care for him about as you would for a gal, don’t you?” said this
Virginia barbarian then. “Well, he’s pootier than any gal I ever see
anywhar. Look here, this is jest what I want to say to you. Ef you
should put him and you in that thar boat, and float down the river,
you’d come to your own lines. Ef I should see you do it, I’d stop you;
but I’m going to take a snooze by the fire here, for I’m powerful
tired. Ef I should wake up, I should fire on you, ef I saw you; and so
would others. But I can’t allus aim straight in the dark; and, whar one
aims, others is likely to. Now I have done you a good turn for what
you’ve did to me; and ef ever we meet again, by God, I’ll kill you.”
“But I can’t in honor escape,” said Ned.
“Of course you can’t,” said the man; “and, if you could, of course you
wouldn’t tell me. There, I don’t want no more to say to you. Just git,
that’s all you’ve got to do.”
Ned went back full of this new temptation. The other pickets were
dispersed, the river rolled on invitingly, and Tom seemed to be
sleeping more quietly than before.
“Perhaps I can get him exchanged in the morning,” said Ned, “since he’s
so ill. I am glad that he is sleeping.”
Just at this moment, Tom awoke hurriedly, and looked about him wildly
and vacantly, then fell back again.
“Oh, if Ned were only here!” he groaned,――“if Ned were only here!”
“Ned is here, Tom, close beside you, as always,” said Ned, softly.
“If Ned were here,” muttered Tom, “he would help me. O Ned, Ned! do
come, do please come and help me to see my mother!”
“I will,” whispered Ned, solemnly. Not an instant was to be lost.
Without daring to think, without daring to look around him, then he
lifted Tom and laid him in the boat. The keel grated on the pebbly
shore. He started nervously and turned; but the faithless picket was
laboriously sleeping. In an instant more he had thrown off his outer
garments; and, with the rope of the boat tied around his neck, he half
swam, half drifted, with the strong current down the stream. Weak from
his late sickness, and the excitement and efforts of the night, his
swimming soon exhausted him; and he clung to the side of the boat,
and drifted with it. The sky now was marked with black cloud-rifts,
that made strange and fantastic outlines on its luminous background;
and the white light of the moon was growing gray. On each side of him
he saw the black trees standing in groups, now dense, now scattered,
along the shores; while ever in his ears was the strange murmur of the
torrent, broken only by Tom’s incoherent muttering as he lay in the
boat. Then suddenly came the sharp report of a rifle; and he knew that
his escape was discovered at last. He heard the bullets whistle by him,
then one grazed the side of the boat, but luckily did not come near
Tom. At last the firing ceased; but the boat seemed to be drifting into
a little cove. He made one desperate effort to push her more into the
main current, but in vain; for his strength was now entirely gone.
Then he gave one cry, as he saw the first faint gleam of dawn in the
east, and the boat struck him, bruised and fainting, against the shore.
He crawled feebly upon the bank, the rope still around his neck; and
then, stunned and bruised, all consciousness forsook him. The last
thing which he knew was, that the birds were just beginning to twitter
in the trees.
* * * * *
When he awoke it was later in the day; and the warm light and air of
the forenoon was streaming into his tent. An orderly was standing by
the entrance.
“Where is Tom?” he asked hoarsely.
“The captain is there;” and the orderly pointed to the other side of
the tent, where Ned saw a figure lying muffled in coats and blankets.
He hardly dared to ask what he dreaded to learn, his voice seemed
clogged and heavy in his throat; and finally, when he did speak, it was
in a hoarse and tremulous whisper:――
“Is he dead?”
“Dead?” said the orderly, surprised; “why, no, colonel! But he is
dreadfully sick; and they are going to take him to the hospital, after
you have seen him and spoken with him.”
“Go outside,” said Ned, briefly, “and let no one enter under any
pretext whatever.” And, as the orderly obeyed, he threw himself down
beside Tom, who was sleeping restlessly under the influence apparently
of some opiate.
He looked at him, laid his hand upon his forehead, and then bent over
and kissed his hot face.
“Tom,” he said. But there was no answer, no movement. “I have come to
bid you good-by, Tom,” he said; “I am going back to deliver myself up.”
But still Tom slept, and groaned.
“Not one word of good-by, Tom,” said poor Ned. “And yet this is the
last time――the very last time――God help me!――that we shall see each
other, that I shall see you. O my darling, my darling, my darling!
please hear me. The only one I have ever loved at all, the only one
who has ever loved me. The last words that you heard from me were those
of anger and impatience, and now, poor fellow! you cannot speak even
to say good-by. Hear me say it. When you get well again, have some
memory of my bending over you and saying it, and telling you that I was
saying good-by, good-by, good-by! O Tom, my darling! don’t forget it.
If you knew how I love you, how I have loved you in all my jealous,
morbid moods, in all my exacting selfishness,――O Tom! my darling, my
darling! can’t you say one word, one little word before we part,――just
one little word, if it were only my name? Oh, please, please speak to
me! Don’t you remember when we were examined for college together? You
sat across the hall. I saw you there; and I wanted to go over and help
you. And your picture, Tom, that we quarrelled about,――I have it now,
Tom; it will be with me when they bury me. Tom, don’t you remember that
picture? It was the night when I determined to go to war that you gave
me that picture; it was just before we enlisted. O Tom! why did I let
you come at all? You will see your mother, Tom; and you will go home
now, and marry, and be happy, and forget me. Oh, no, no, no, Tom! you
won’t do that; you can’t do that. You won’t forget Ned, darling; he
was something to you; and you were all the world to him. O Tom! Tom!
please say one word to him.” He stopped and was silent. Tom only moaned
restlessly in his sleep; and there seemed to be a painful death-like
silence inside the tent, while outside was the bright life of the
morning and the busy murmur of the camp.
“Ah, well!” he said, “it is better so. He would not let me go if he
were conscious; he would say that I must stay with him; and that cannot
be. He need not know that I am dead, as I shall be, until he himself is
well once again. Good-by, Tom! good-by! and God bless you forever, my
darling!”
And calmly, yet with a dreadful pang at his heart, he stooped, and
once more kissed the flushed face of his friend; then quickly, as if
impelled by some force not his own, without daring to look backward, he
rushed from the tent.