"Halt!"
At the sound of that piping, childish treble calling his name in so
unexpected a place the officer at the head of the troop threw up his
gauntleted hand and brought the detachment to a standstill in a cloud of
dust.
"Hello, there," he said, turning curiously around in his saddle. "Who is
it wants me?"
"It's _me_, Virgie!" the child cried, leaping up and down on the wall,
all forgetful of her sore foot. "Come help Daddy and me--come quick!"
"Well--what on earth--"
Morrison threw out a command to his men and, wheeling his horse, spurred
vigorously up to the wall where he dismounted and came up to take a
closer view of the tangle haired little person dancing on one foot.
"Why--bless my soul if it isn't Virgie!" His arms opened to take her in
when, suddenly, his eye fell on O'Connell, standing at attention on the
other side of the wall.
"O'Connell," he said, sternly, "what is the meaning of this? Why aren't
you with your detachment?"
"It isn't _his_ fault," Virgie interposed in stout defense of the nice
Yankee who carried biscuits in his knapsack. "He's under orders."
The glib use of the military term made a smile flicker across Morrison's
face, but his eyes did not leave the troubled trooper.
"_Whose_ orders?" he demanded.
"Corporal Dudley, sir," was the stammering answer.
At this moment Cary stepped forward and the two officers exchanged nods
of recognition.
"Let me explain," the Confederate said. "Virgie and I were making for
Richmond as rapidly as we could. Here, by this spring, we were put under
arrest by a corporal and four troopers. Naturally, I presented your
pass, but the corporal refused to honor it. He then left me under guard
and hurried off to headquarters with the pass in his possession."
At this unwelcome news Morrison's head jerked back as if he had been
struck and his lips tightened. Without the addition of another word to
Cary's story he saw all the dire consequences to himself of what had
been an act of the commonest humanity. Yes, in other times it would have
been what any right thinking human being would have done for another in
distress, but, unhappily, this was war time and the best of motives were
only too often mis-read. In his mind's eye he saw the vindictive Dudley,
eager for a revenge which he could not encompass any other way, laying
the proof of this act before his superiors with an abundance of
collateral evidence which, he knew, would condemn him before any
military tribunal in the world. It mattered not what kindly impulses had
guided his hand when he wrote the safeguard on the other side of the
paper on which Robert E. Lee had previously placed his name, for it is
not the custom of courts martial to weigh the milk of human kindness
against the blood and iron of war. The good and the safety of the
greater number demand the sacrifice of every man who would imperil the
cause by ill considered generosity. Morrison could see that very
presently he would have to answer certain stern questions.
Yet, there was a chance still that Dudley might be headed off and this
whole miserable business stopped before revenge could set the inexorable
wheels in motion and he whirled round on O'Connell with a sharp
question:
"Which way did Dudley go?"
"Down the pike, then over the hill by the wood road, sor--makin' for
headquarters," the young Irishman answered, only too glad of a chance to
help his officer out of what, he saw, was a frightful situation.
"How long ago?" came back the instant query.
"Five minutes, sor. Ye cud catch him wid a horse."
"Ah," exclaimed Morrison, and he threw up his hand to his men.
"Lieutenant Harris," he shouted. "Take a squad and ride to camp by the
wood road. Overtake Corporal Dudley or intercept him at headquarters.
Don't fail! Get him and bring him here!"
Lieutenant Harris's hand went up to his hat in ready salute and he
bellowed out his orders.
"Jennings! Hewlett! Brown! Hammond! Burt! 'Bout face. Forward!" Almost
before the words were out of his mouth Harris and his men were riding
madly down the road in a chase, which the Lieutenant suspected, meant
something more to his colonel, than merely the recovery of a
safe-conduct for a Confederate officer and a little girl.
Morrison turned to Trooper O'Connell and jerked his thumb towards the
road.
"Report at my quarters this evening--at nine," he said curtly. And the
young Irishman, thankful to be well out of the mess, quickly clambered
over the wall and disappeared though not without a soft voiced farewell
from Virgie.
"Good-by, Mr. Knapsack Man," called the child. "Thank you for the
biscuits."
Then Cary came forward and gripped the other's hand.
"Colonel," he said earnestly, with full appreciation of what was passing
through Morrison's mind, "I hope no trouble will come of this. If I had
only known the vindictiveness of this man--"
He was interrupted by a genially objecting hand and a laugh which
Morrison was somehow able to make lighthearted.
"Oh, that will be all right. Harris will get him--never fear."
"And so," he said, addressing Miss Virginia, "that bad man took your
pass?"
"Yes, sir. He did," Virgie answered, and caught his hand in hers. "He
ran right away with it--mean old thing."
"Well, then--we'll have to write you out another one. A nice, clean,
white one this time. Come on, little sweetheart. We'll do it together,"
and he took out a note book and pencil.
"I say, Morrison," Cary murmured, glancing apprehensively at the
troopers idling in the road and very plainly interested in what the
small group were doing, "do you really think you'd better--on your own
account?"
Again Morrison's hand was raised in polite objection. He had taken a
sporting chance when he wrote the pass which had been stolen but because
he had probably lost was no reason why he shouldn't play the game out
bravely to the end. So he only smiled at Virgie, who came and sat beside
him, and began to write the few short sentences of his second
safe-conduct. But while he wrote he was talking in low tones which the
troopers in the road could not hear.
"There's a line of your pickets about three miles up the road, Cary,"
said he. "If I loaned you a horse, do you think Virgie could ride behind
you?"
"_Me?_" pouted Virgie. "Why, Daddy says that when I was bornded, I came
ridin' in on a stork."
Morrison burst out laughing and dropped his hand down on the small paw
resting on his knee.
"Then, by St. George and the Dragon we'll send you home to Jefferson
Davis on a snorting Pegasus!"
Again Cary spoke to him in warning tones, which at the same time
thanked him unendingly for the kindly thought.
"You needn't trouble about the mount. Why, man," he said huskily,
"you're in trouble enough, as it is! And if our lines are as close as
you say they are--"
Once more the Union officer checked him.
"It isn't any trouble. Only--you'll have to be careful of your approach,
even to your own lines. Those gray devils in the rifle pits up there
have formed the habit of shooting _first_ and asking questions
_afterwards_. There you are," and he tore the leaf from his note book
and handed it up with a faint smile.
The Southerner took it with a reluctant hand.
"I--I wish I could thank you--Morrison," he said in tones that shook
with feeling, "but you see I--I--"
"Then please don't try. Because if you do I'll--I'll have to hold Virgie
as a prisoner of war.
"Well, young one," he said to the small Miss Cary with a laugh, "did you
really get something to eat?"
"Yes, sir. That is--we _almost_ did."
"_Almost?_" he echoed.
"Yes, sir," came the plaintive answer. "Eve'y time we start to
eat--somethin' _always_ happens!"
"Well, well, that _is_ hard luck," he said with a gentle squeeze of her
frail body. "But I'll bet you it won't happen this time; not if a whole
regiment tries to stop it."
"Come on," he suggested as he sprang to his feet and began picking up
dry twigs. "You can start in and munch on those heavenly biscuits while
this terrible Yankee builds the fire." Cary made a move as if to help;
but Morrison checked him.
"Oh, no, Cary, just you keep on sitting still. This is no work for you.
You're tired out.
"Here, Virgie, I know you want to get me some water from the spring.
Please pick out the cleanest pieces of water you can and put them
carefully in the coffee pot. All right. There you are. _'Tention!_
Carr-ee coffee pot! Right wheel! _March!_"
With a carefree laugh he turned away to light the little heap of twigs
he had placed between two flat stones. "It's mighty considerate of my
boys to leave us all these things. We'll call it the raid of Black Gum
Spring.
"And here comes the little lady with the coffee pot filled just right.
Now watch me pour in the good old coffee--_real_ coffee, Virgie
dear--not made from aco'ns." He settled the pot on the fire and sat back
with a grin. "Oh, oh! Don't watch it," he cried, in well feigned alarm
as Virgie, unwilling to believe the sight, stooped over to feast her
eyes on the rich brown powder sinking into the black gulf of the pot.
"If you do that it will never, _never_ boil!"
"All right," the child agreed pathetically, and she sank wearily down
against her father's knee. "I'll just pray for it to hurry up."
The two men exchanged quiet smiles and Cary murmured something in his
daughter's ear.
"Oh, no, I won't," she answered, and then looked up at Morrison with a
roguish light in her dark eyes. "He's only afraid I'll pray so terribly
hard that the old coffee pot will boil over an' put out the fire."
Morrison, chuckling, now began to drag something out of a rear pocket.
Presently, he uncorked it and held it up--a _flask_!
"Here, Cary," he said, holding out a cup. "Join me, won't you? Of
course, you understand--in case a snake should bite us."
"Colonel Morrison," responded the Southerner, "you are certainly a man
of ideas."
He waited for his foe to fill his own cup, then raised his in a toast:
"I drink to the health, sir, of you and yours. Here's hoping that some
day I may take _you_ prisoner!"
At the quizzical look of surprise in the other's face Cary's voice
almost broke.
"I mean, sir, it's the only way I could ever hope to show you how much I
appreciate--"
He stopped and covered his face with his hands, not a little to his
daughter's alarm.
"Come, come, old chap," the Northerner said bluffly, tapping him on the
shoulder. "Brace up. It's the fortunes of war, you know. One side or the
other is bound to win. Perhaps--who knows--it may be _your_ turn
to-morrow. Well, sir--here goes. May it soon be over--in the way that's
best and wisest for us all.
"Now, Virgie," he went on, when the toast had been drunk, "while I wash
these cups suppose you go on another voyage of discovery through the
magic knapsack for some sugar for the coffee."
He watched her fling herself impetuously on the knapsack. "If you find
any Yankee spoons--put them under arrest. They haven't any pass like
yours."
Then he turned to Cary: "Have any trouble on the road as you came
along?"
The other man shook his head.
"None to speak of. We were stopped several times of course, but each
time your pass let us through without delay--until we met Dudley. And
now I'm worried, Colonel," he said frankly, while his eyes tried to tell
the other all that he feared without putting it in words, "worried on
your account. It's easy to see that the man has a grudge against you--"
"Yes, I'm afraid he has," was the thoughtful reply. "But really, Cary,
you mustn't try to carry any more burdens than your own, just now. I
know what you mean and what, I daresay, you'd be only too willing to do,
but I can't permit it."
They were interrupted by the spectacle of Virgie standing before them
with anxiously furrowed brow, a paper bag in one hand and three spoons
clutched in the other.
"But Colonel Morrison," she was saying in tragic tones, "there isn't a
drop of milk."
"Milk!" he cried in mock despair. "Well, dash my buttons if I didn't
forget to order a cow."
"Oh, _I_ know what to do," cried the child. Dropping her supplies and
utensils she ran to the wall and climbed up.
"Hey, there, _you_" commanded the small general with an imperious
gesture to the assembled troopers. "One of you men ride right over to
camp and bring us back some milk--an' butter."
At this abrupt demand of so small a rebel on the commissary of the
United States a roar of laughter went up from the troopers, though some
of them had the grace to salute and so relieve the child of
embarrassment.
"Virgie! Virgie!" called her father, scandalized.
"It's all right, Cary," Morrison laughed. "She's only starting in at
giving orders a little earlier than most women.
"Never you mind, Miss Brigadier," he comforted. "We'll have all those
luxuries next time, or when I come to see you in Richmond after the war
is over. Just now we'll do the best we can. Come along."
Virgie got down from the wall and pattered up to the fire.
"Is it ready yet?" she asked with the perfect directness of seven years.
"In a minute now. Ah-hah! There she goes."
He took the pot from the fire and set it down on a rock where,
presently, he brought a cupful of cold water to pour in.
"Is that to settle it?" she asked of her father.
"Yes, child--and I wish all our questions were as easily cleared up.
And now--to the attack."
"Right-o. Virgie--pass the beautiful, hand painted china and let's fill
up. This one for your daddy--you can put the sugar in. Only don't burn
those precious fingers."
Virgie carried the steaming cup to her father and put it in his hands
with shining eyes.
"This is better than our old belt supper, Daddy, isn't it?" she said,
with a flirt of her tangled curls. "Anyway--it _smells_ nicer."
She was back at the sugar bag at once, digging out spoonfuls for
Morrison's coffee.
"Thank you, Miss Cary, I am indeed obliged to you. Now do sit down and
_eat_. No, not another word till you've eaten two whole biscuits!"
For several ecstatic moments the child munched her biscuits. It had been
a long time since she had eaten anything so delicious, although if those
same biscuits had appeared on the Cary table a month ago they would have
probably been scorned. But eager as her appetite was it did not stop the
active workings of her mind and she presently was struck by an idea
which tried to force itself out through a mouthful of biscuit--with the
usual amusing results.
"_Virginia!_" admonished her father.
Morrison laughed out like a boy and slapped his knee.
"Suppose we swallow--and try again."
Virgie, thus adjured, concentrated her mind on the task--gulped,
blinked, swallowed with pathetically straining eyes, and then smiled
triumphantly.
"Excuse me, Daddy. I guess I wasn't very polite."
"Apology accepted. What were you going to say?"
The child looked up with a sweetly serious look in her eyes that the two
men recognized as the forerunner of true womanly thought for others.
"I was only goin' to ask the Colonel if he didn't think his men out
there would like some of these _heavingly_ things to eat?" she said
plaintively. "It must be terrible--jus' to look on!"
"Well, bless your little heart," the Northerner cried. "But don't you
worry about the boys. They'll have theirs when they get back to camp. Go
on and eat, Virgie. Stuff in another biscuit. And, look! By Jupiter.
_Butter!_"
Evidently Trooper O'Connell during the past twenty-four hours had
foraged or blarneyed most successfully for out of the knapsack which he
had left behind Morrison suddenly produced a small earthenware jam jar
in which was something now indubitably liquid in form but none the less
sweet, yellow, appetizing butter. Pouring a little on a biscuit he held
it out to her, speculating on what she would say.
The tot took it hungrily and raised it to her lips, her eyes shining and
her face glowing with anticipation. Then she paused and, with a little
cry of vexation over her selfishness, held out the biscuit to her
father.
"Here, Daddy," she said. "You take this--because you tried to bring me
somethin' good to eat yesterday."
The father threw a look at Morrison and caught Virgie to him in a swift
embrace.
"No, dear," he said. "Eat your nice buttered biscuit and thank the good
Lord for it. Your father will get more fun out of seeing you eat that
little bit than he would out of owning a whole cellar of big stone
crocks jam full. Do you know--I think when we get up to Richmond you'll
have to write a letter to the Colonel--a nice long letter, thanking him
for all he's done. Won't you?"
There was a pause for a moment as the child looked over at Morrison,
revolving the thought in her mind.
The Union officer had passed into a sudden reverie, the hand holding his
coffee cup hanging listlessly over his knee. He was thinking of another
little girl, and one as dear to him as this man's child was to her
father. He was wondering if the fortunes of war would ever let him see
her face again or hear her voice--or feel her chubby arms around his
neck. She was very, very far away--well cared for, it was true, but he
knew only too well that it would need but one malignant leaden missile
to make her future life as full of hardships as those which the little
tot beside him was passing through to-day. So much, at least, for the
ordinary chances of war--he was beginning to wonder how much had been
added to these perils by the matter of the pass and whether his
superiors would see the situation as it had appeared to his eyes.
Into this sad reverie Virgie's soft voice entered with a gentleness
which roused but did not startle him. When she spoke, it seemed as if
some subtle thought-current between their minds had put the subject of
his dreams into the child's mind.
"Do you reckon," the child said, curiously, "that Gertrude is havin'
_her_ supper now?"
The Union officer looked up with eyes that mutely blessed her.
"Yes, dear, I was thinking of her--and her mother."
Again he was silent for a space, and when he spoke, his voice was
dreamy, tender, as he seemed to look with unseeing eyes far into the
Northland where dwelt the people of his heart.
"Do you know, Cary, this war for us, the men, may be a hell, but what is
it for those we leave at home? The women! Who wait--and watch--and too
often watch in vain. _We_ have the excitement of it--the rush--the
battles--and we think that ours is the harder part when, in reality, we
make our loved ones' lives a deeper, blacker hell than our own. Theirs
to watch and listen with the love hunger in their hearts, month in,
month out and often without a word! Theirs to starve on the crusts of
hope! Waiting--always waiting! Hunting the papers for the thing they
dread to find; a name among the missing. A name among the dead! Good
Heaven! When I think of it sometimes--" Morrison dropped his head
between his clenched fists and groaned.
"Yes, yes, old fellow, I know," the other man answered, for in truth he
_did_ know, "but I want you to remember that for you the crusts of hope
will some day be the bread of life--and love."
Slowly the Northerner's face came up out of his hands and he seemed to
take heart again. After all, he had led a charmed life so far--perhaps
the God of Battles had written his name among those who would some day
go back to live the life for which the Almighty made them. God grant
then that he might have for his friend this man who, in the time of his
own greater grief, was unselfish enough to console him. Ah! If God would
only grant that from this day on there would be no more of this hideous
fighting. Morrison's eyes met the other's and he put out his hand.
Suddenly there came the sound of a shot. Another and another--then a
volley, which almost at once became a continuous rattle of musketry.
The Northerner sprang to his feet. "Look! there go your pickets."
Struck dumb by this sudden return to the actualities of life the two men
stood motionless, listening for every sound which might tell them what
it meant. For a little while they had dreamed the dream of peace only to
have it rudely shattered.
But Virgie had not followed them in their dreams, for she was an
extremely practical young lady. Having seen food, real food, vanish
away before her very eyes several times already she was quite prepared
to see it happen again.
"There!" she said, in tones in which prophecy and resignation were oddly
mingled. "Didn't I jus' _know_ somethin' was goin' to happen!"
By this time Morrison had run to the stone wall and sprung to its top.
Out in the road the troopers had mounted without waiting for command and
with one accord had faced towards the firing.
"Can you see anything?" Cary called.
"Not yet," said Morrison. "I guess we came too close to your nest--and
the hornets are coming out."
"Turner!" he commanded, and a trooper's hand went up, "ride up to the
fork of the road. Learn what you can and report."
As the cavalryman struck his heels into his horse's sides and dashed up
the road Cary put the wishes of both men into words.
"It's too near sundown for a battle. It will only be a skirmish."
"Ye-e-e-s, possibly," the Northerner assented, and he looked
thoughtfully at Virgie, "but still--"
"What is it?"
"I can't send you forward now--in the face of that fire. And, for that
matter, I can't send you to the rear. In five minutes this road will be
glutted with cavalry and guns."
"Never mind, Morrison," the Southerner returned. "I couldn't go
now--anyway."
"Why?"
Cary opened out his hands in a simple gesture. "Because, in case of
trouble for you at headquarters, I'm _still_ your prisoner." With his
eyes brave and steady on the others he took the newly written pass from
his breast--and tore it in pieces. "When you want me," he said, "you'll
find me--_here_."
If there had been time for argument Morrison would have hotly protested
against such self-sacrifice, but events were crowding upon them too
fast. From down the road came the sound of furious galloping. Almost at
once Lieutenant Harris, riding hard at the head of a troop of cavalry,
swept round the curve and drew his horse upon his haunches.
"Colonel Morrison!" he shouted. "You are ordered--"
"One moment, Lieutenant," interrupted Morrison in tones so even that
Cary marveled at his composure, "_Did you get Corporal Dudley?_"
Cary's ears ached for the answer. He knew just as well as the questioner
the danger which might now be disclosed or be forever forgotten and his
heart went out to the other in this moment of hideous suspense.
There was an instant of hesitation and then came the answer.
"_No, sir!_ We tried hard but couldn't make it."
Morrison's face did not change but his hands tightened until the nails
dug deep into his palms. He had played--and lost.
"Go on with your report," he said.
Harris pulled in his fretting horse and delivered his significant news.
"The Rebels are advancing in force. I was sent back to you with orders
to join Major Foster at the fork and hold the road at any cost. Two
light field pieces are coming to your support. Our main batteries are
back there--in the woods."
"Right," said Morrison, "we go at once." Turning back to Virgie he
caught her up in his arms and kissed her. "Good-by, little sweetheart.
Hide under the rocks and keep close."
"Good-by, Morrison," Gary said, as they struck hands. "I can't wish you
luck--but our hearts are with you as a man."
"Thanks, old fellow," said the enemy, as he sprang over the wall "It
helps--God knows."
He caught at his horse's mane and threw himself into the saddle without
touching the stirrup, while his voice roared out his command.
"Ready, men! Forward!"
"Good-by," shrilled Virgie in her childish treble. "Good-by, Colonel!
Don't get hurt."
"Daddy!" she cried, as they crouched down in their hiding place behind
the wall. "Is there going to be a--a _battle_?"
"Only a little one. But you won't be afraid."
A rattle of approaching wheels came from down the road, the shock of
steel tires striking viciously against the stones, the cries and oaths
of the drivers urging the horses forward.
"Look!" cried Cary, springing to his feet in spite of the danger in
which his gray uniform placed him. "Here come the field pieces. In a
minute now the dogs will begin to bark."
With a roar of wheels and a clash of harness and accouterments the guns
rushed by while the child stared and stared, her big eyes almost
starting out of her face.
"The dogs!" she said in wonder. "There wasn't a single dog there!"
"Another kind of dog," her father said with a meaning look. "And their
teeth are _very_ long. Ah! There they go! Over yonder on the hill--in
the edge of the woods. The Yankee dogs are barking. Now listen for the
answer."
Together they listened, father and daughter, with straining
ears--listened for the defiant reply of those men who, being Americans,
were never beaten until hunger and superior numbers forced them to the
wall.
"Boom!" A great, ear-filling sound crashed over the hills and rolled,
echoing, through the woods.
"That's us! That's us!" the man cried out exultantly, while he caught
the child closer in his arms. "Hear our people talking, honey? Hear 'em
talk!"
But overhead something was coming through the air and the child shrank
down in terror--something that whined and screamed as it sped on its
dreadful way and seemed like a demon out of hell searching for his prey.
"Lord a' mercy, Daddy!" the child cried out. "What's _that_?"
He patted her head consolingly. "Nothing at all but a shell. They sound
much worse than they really are. Don't be afraid. Nothing will hurt
you."
From the forks of the road the sound of volley firing grew stronger and,
as if in response, the road to the Union rear now turned into a stream
of living blue, with cavalry madly galloping and sweating infantry
hurrying forward as fast as their legs could carry them.
"Look, Virgie, look!" her father cried, holding her head a little way
above the wall. "See those bayonets shining back there across the road.
A whole regiment of infantry. And they're going up against our _men
across an open field!_ By Jiminy, but those Yanks will get a mustard
bath. Ah-hah!" he chortled, as a roar of musketry broke out. "I told you
so! Our boys are after them. Good work! Good work!"
But again a shell passed over them and again the world was filled with
that awful whining, shrieking sound.
"Daddy," the child cried, with quivering lips, but still dry eyed. "I
don't _like_ those things. I don't _like_'em."
"There, there, darling," he comforted as they shrank closer under the
protection of the wall. "Keep down under my arm and they won't bother
you."
As he spoke a twig with a fresh yellow break in it fell from a tree and
struck his upturned face. He winced at the thought that the bullet
might have flown a few feet lower. And meanwhile the sound of the firing
came steadily closer.
"By Jove!" he murmured to himself, "it's a bigger rumpus than I
thought."
This indeed was true. What had at first promised to be only a skirmish
between the outposts of the two entrenched armies, now developed into a
general engagement covering a space of half a mile along the line. A
reconnoitering force of Federal cavalry had ridden too close to the
rifle pits of the Confederates, and, as Morrison himself expressed it,
"the hornets came out and began to sting."
Major Foster, commanding a larger force of cavalry, rode out in support
of his reconnoitering party, and found himself opposed, not by a
straggling line of Rebel pickets, but by a moving wall of tattered gray,
the units of which advanced on a low-bent run, crouching behind some
bush or stone, to fire, reload and advance again.
An aide raced back to the Union lines to ask for help in support of
Foster's slender force of cavalry; and thus the order came to Morrison
to join the detachment and hold the enemy until reinforcements could be
formed and pushed to the firing line.
The delay, however, was well nigh fatal for Morrison and Major Foster,
and from the point where Cary and little Virgie watched, the case of the
Union horsemen seemed an evil one. True, that infantry and guns were
soon advancing to their aid on a "double-quick"; yet all the advantage
seemed to lie with the ragged, sharp-shooting Southerners.
The crackle of musketry increased; the dust rolled up and intermingled
with the wreathes of drifting smoke, and through it came the vicious
whine of leaden messengers of death.
Then, borne on the wind, came a sound that he would know till his dying
day--_the rebel yell_. An exultant scream,--a cry of unending hate,
defiance, _victory_!
He sprang to his feet. Off came the battered old campaign hat and
unmindful that he stood there hidden in the woods and that his voice
could carry only a few yards against the roar of battle, he swung it
over his head: and shouted out his encouragement.
"Look! We're whipping 'em. Virgie, do you hear? We're getting them on
the run. Come on, boys! Come on!"
He felt her clutch on his sleeve. With wide eyes grown darker than ever
with excitement, she asked her piteous question.
"Daddy! _Will they kill the Colonel?_"
For a moment he could not answer. Then, with a groan he gave back his
answer: "I _hope_ not, darling. I hope not!"
Down the road a riderless horse was coming, head up and stirrups flying.
As it galloped past Cary scrutinized it closely and was glad he did not
recognize it. In its wake came soldiers, infantry and dismounted
cavalry, firing, retreating, loading and firing again, but always
retreating.
"Here come the stragglers," he cried. "We're whipping 'em! Close,
darling, _close_. Lie down against the wall."
He crouched above her, shielding her as best he could with his body.
Then, suddenly, a man in blue leaped on the wall not ten feet away. He
had meant to seize the wall as a breastwork and fight from behind it,
but before he dropped down he would fire one last shot. His gun came up
to his shoulder--he aimed at some unseen foe and fired. But from
somewhere, out of the crash of sound and the rolling powder smoke, a
singing missile came and found its mark. The man in blue bent over
suddenly, wavered, then toppled down inside the wall, his gun ringing on
the stones as he fell.
"Daddy!" the child whispered, with ashen face, "it's the biscuit man.
It's HARRY!"
Her father's hand went out instinctively to cover her eyes. "Don't look,
dear! Don't look!"
The road was choked now. Cavalry and infantry, all in a mad rush for the
rear, were tearing by while the two field pieces which but a moment ago
had gone into action with such a deadly whirl came limping back with
slashed traces and splintered wheels. With fascinated eyes the Rebel
officer watched from behind his wall, while everything, even his child,
was forgotten in the lust for victory. And so he did not hear the faint
voice behind him that cried out in an agony of thirst and pain.
"Water! Water! Help! Someone--give water!"
Virgie, with dilated eyes and heaving breast, crouched low as long as
she could and then gave up everything to the pitiful appeal ringing in
her ears. Quick as a flash, she sped away on bare feet over rocks and
sharp, pointed branches of fallen trees to the spring, where she caught
up a cup and filled it to the brim. Another swift rush and she reached
the fallen man in blue and had the cup at his lips, while her arm went
under his head to lift it.
"Virgie!" her father cried, frantic at the sight. With a great leap he
was at her side, forcing her down to the ground and covering her with
his body.
The trooper's head sank back and his eyes began to dull.
"May God bless ye, little one," he murmured. "Heaven--_Mary_--_!_" His
lips gave out one long, shuddering sigh. His body grew slack and his
chin fell. Trooper Harry O'Connell had fought his last fight--had
passed to his final review.
One look at the boyish face so suddenly gone gray and bloodless and Gary
caught Virgie up in his arms. "Come dear, you can't help him any more,"
and with a crouching run they were back once more in the shelter of the
wall.
And now the shriek of the shells and the whine of the bullets came
shriller than before. All around them the twigs were dropping, while the
acrid powder smoke rolled in through the trees and burnt their eyes and
throats. Again came men in blue retreating and among them an officer on
horseback, wheeling his animal madly around among them and shouting
encouragement as he tried to face them to the front. "Keep at it, men,"
Morrison was crying, half mad with rage. "One decent stand and we can
hold them. Give it to them hard. Stand, I tell you. _Stand!_"
All around him, however, men were falling and those who were left began
to waver. "Steady, men! Don't flinch," came the shout again. "Ah-hah,
you _would_, would you? _Coward!_"
Morrison's sword held flatwise, thudded down on the back of a man who
had flung away his gun. "Get back in the fight, you dog! Get back!"
He whipped out his revolver and pointed it till the gun had been
snatched up, then fired all its chambers at the oncoming hordes in gray.
"One more stand," he yelled. "One more--"
Beside him the color sergeant gave a moan and bent in the middle like a
hinge. Another slackening of his body and the stricken bearer of the
flag plunged from his saddle, the colors trailing in the dust.
Morrison spurred his mount toward the fallen man, bending to grasp the
colors from the tight gripped hand; but even as he bent, his horse went
down. He leaped to save himself, then turned once more, snatched at the
flag of his routed regiment and waved it above his head.
"_Stand, boys, and give it to 'em!_"
A shout went up--not from the men he sought to rally to his flag, but
from those who would win it at a cost of blood, for his troopers were
running on a backward road, and Morrison fought alone. The "gray devils"
were all around him now, and he backed against the wall, fighting till
his sword was sent spinning from his fist by the blow of a musket butt;
then, grasping the color-pole in both his hands, he parried bayonet
thrusts and saber strokes, panting, breathing in hot, labored gasps, and
cursing his enemies from a hoarse, parched throat.
A hideous, unequal fight it was, and soon Lieutenant-Colonel Morrison
must fall as his colors fell and be trampled in the dust; yet now
through an eddying drift of smoke came another ragged Southerner, a
grim, gaunt man whose voice was as hoarse as Morrison's, who had grasped
a saber from the blood stained rocks and waved it above his head.
"Back, boys! Don't kill that man!"
Among them he plunged till he reached the side of Morrison, then turned
and faced the brothers of his country and his State. With a downward
stroke he arrested a saber thrusts and then struck upward at a rifle's
mouth as it spit its deadly flame.
"Don't kill him! Do you hear?" he cried, as he beat at the bayonet
points. "I'm Cary! Herbert Cary!--_on the staff of General Lee!_"
For an instant the attacking Southerners stood aghast at the sight of
this raging man in gray who defended a Yankee officer; and yet he had
made no saber stroke to wound or kill; instead, his weapon had come
between their own and the life of a well-nigh helpless foe. For a moment
more they paused and looked with wondering eyes, and in that moment
their victory was changed to rout.
A bugle blared. A thundering rush of hoof beats sounded on the road, and
the Union reënforcements swept around the curve. Six abreast they came,
a regiment of strong, straight riders, hungry for battle, hot to
retrieve the losing fortune of the day. The road was too narrow for a
concentrated rush, so they streamed into the fields on either side,
re-formed, and swept like an avalanche of blue upon their prey. The guns
in the woods now thundered forth afresh, their echoes rolling out
across the hills, and the attacking Rebels turned and fled, like leaves
before a storm.
On one side of the road, Morrison and Cary shrank down beside the wall
to let the Union riders pass; on the other, all that was left of the
Rebel force ran helter-skelter for a screen of protecting trees. But
before the last one disappeared he threw up his gun and fired,
haphazard, in the direction whence he had come.
As if in reply came the sound of a saber falling from a man's hand and
striking on a stone. Under his very eyes and just as he was putting out
his hand to grip the others Morrison saw Herbert Cary sinking slowly to
the ground.
And then, through the yellow dust clouds and the powder smoke and all
the horrid reek of war, a child came running with outstretched arms and
piteous voice--a frightened child, weeping for the father who had thrown
himself headlong into peril to save another's life and who, perhaps, had
lost his own.