Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Presently they knew that no firing threatened them. All ways

seemed once more opened to them. The dusty blue lines of their

friends were disclosed a short distance away. In the distance

there were many colossal noises, but in all this part of the

field there was a sudden stillness.

They perceived that they were free. The depleted band drew a long

breath of relief and gathered itself into a bunch to complete its trip.

In this last length of journey the men began to show strange

emotions. They hurried with nervous fear. Some who had been

dark and unfaltering in the grimmest moments now could not

conceal an anxiety that made them frantic. It was perhaps that

they dreaded to be killed in insignificant ways after the times

for proper military deaths had passed. Or, perhaps, they thought

it would be too ironical to get killed at the portals of safety.

With backward looks of perturbation, they hastened.

As they approached their own lines there was some sarcasm exhibited

on the part of a gaunt and bronzed regiment that lay resting in the

shade of the trees. Questions were wafted to them.

"Where th' hell yeh been?"

"What yeh comin' back fer?"

"Why didn't yeh stay there?"

"Was it warm out there, sonny?"

"Goin' home now, boys?"

One shouted in taunting mimicry: "Oh, mother, come quick an'

look at th' sojers!"

There was no reply from the bruised and battered regiment,

save that one man made broadcast challenges to fist fights and

the red-bearded officer walked rather near and glared in great

swashbuckler style at a tall captain in the other regiment.

But the lieutenant suppressed the man who wished to fist fight,

and the tall captain, flushing at the little fanfare of the

red-bearded one, was obliged to look intently at some trees.

The youth's tender flesh was deeply stung by these remarks.

From under his creased brows he glowered with hate at the mockers.

He meditated upon a few revenges. Still, many in the regiment

hung their heads in criminal fashion, so that it came to pass

that the men trudged with sudden heaviness, as if they

bore upon their bended shoulders the coffin of their honor.

And the youthful lieutenant, recollecting himself, began to

mutter softly in black curses.

They turned when they arrived at their old position to regard

the ground over which they had charged.

The youth in this contemplation was smitten with a large astonishment.

He discovered that the distances, as compared with the brilliant

measurings of his mind, were trivial and ridiculous. The stolid trees,

where much had taken place, seemed incredibly near. The time, too,

now that he reflected, he saw to have been short. He wondered

at the number of emotions and events that had been crowded into

such little spaces. Elfin thoughts must have exaggerated and

enlarged everything, he said.

It seemed, then, that there was bitter justice in the speeches

of the gaunt and bronzed veterans. He veiled a glance of disdain

at his fellows who strewed the ground, choking with dust, red from

perspiration, misty-eyed, disheveled.

They were gulping at their canteens, fierce to wring every mite

of water from them, and they polished at their swollen and

watery features with coat sleeves and bunches of grass.

However, to the youth there was a considerable joy in musing

upon his performances during the charge. He had had very little

time previously in which to appreciate himself, so that there

was now much satisfaction in quietly thinking of his actions.

He recalled bits of color that in the flurry had stamped

themselves unawares upon his engaged senses.

As the regiment lay heaving from its hot exertions the officer

who had named them as mule drivers came galloping along the line.

He had lost his cap. His tousled hair streamed wildly,

and his face was dark with vexation and wrath. His temper

was displayed with more clearness by the way in which he managed

his horse. He jerked and wrenched savagely at his bridle, stopping

the hard-breathing animal with a furious pull near the colonel of

the regiment. He immediately exploded in reproaches which came

unbidden to the ears of the men. They were suddenly alert,

being always curious about black words between officers.

"Oh, thunder, MacChesnay, what an awful bull you made of this thing!"

began the officer. He attempted low tones, but his indignation

caused certain of the men to learn the sense of his words.

"What an awful mess you made! Good Lord, man, you stopped

about a hundred feet this side of a very pretty success! If your

men had gone a hundred feet farther you would have made a great

charge, but as it is--what a lot of mud diggers you've got anyway!"

The men, listening with bated breath, now turned their curious

eyes upon the colonel. They had a had a ragamuffin interest in

this affair.

The colonel was seen to straighten his form and put one hand

forth in oratorical fashion. He wore an injured air; it was as

if a deacon had been accused of stealing. The men were wiggling

in an ecstasy of excitement.

But of a sudden the colonel's manner changed from that of a

deacon to that of a Frenchman. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, well, general, we went as far as we could," he said calmly.

"As far as you could? Did you, b'Gawd?" snorted the other.

"Well, that wasn't very far, was it?" he added, with a glance

of cold contempt into the other's eyes. "Not very far, I think.

You were intended to make a diversion in favor of Whiterside.

How well you succeeded your own ears can now tell you."

He wheeled his horse and rode stiffly away.

The colonel, bidden to hear the jarring noises of an engagement

in the woods to the left, broke out in vague damnations.

The lieutenant, who had listened with an air of impotent rage

to the interview, spoke suddenly in firm and undaunted tones.

"I don't care what a man is--whether he is a general or what--

if he says th' boys didn't put up a good fight out there he's

a damned fool."

"Lieutenant," began the colonel, severely, "this is my own

affair, and I'll trouble you--"

The lieutenant made an obedient gesture. "All right, colonel,

all right," he said. He sat down with an air of being content

with himself.

The news that the regiment had been reproached went along the line.

For a time the men were bewildered by it. "Good thunder!"

they ejaculated, staring at the vanishing form of the general.

They conceived it to be a huge mistake.

Presently, however, they began to believe that in truth their

efforts had been called light. The youth could see this

conviction weight upon the entire regiment until the men were

like cuffed and cursed animals, but withal rebellious.

The friend, with a grievance in his eye, went to the youth.

I wonder what he does want," he said. "He must think we went

out there an' played marbles! I never see sech a man!"

The youth developed a tranquil philosophy for these moments of

irritation. "Oh, well," he rejoined, "he probably didn't see

nothing of it at all and god mad as blazes, and concluded we were

a lot of sheep, just because we didn't do what he wanted done.

It's a pity old Grandpa Henderson got killed yestirday--he'd have

known that we did our best and fought good. It's just our

awful luck, that's what."

"I should say so," replied the friend. He seemed to be deeply

wounded at an injustice. "I should say we did have awful luck!

There's no fun in fightin' fer people when everything yeh do--

no matter what--ain't done right. I have a notion t' stay

behind next time an' let 'em take their ol' charge an' go t'

th' devil with it."

The youth spoke soothingly to his comrade. "Well, we both did good.

I'd like to see the fool what'd say we both didn't do as good as

we could!"

"Of course we did," declared the friend stoutly. "An' I'd break

th' feller's neck if he was as big as a church. But we're all right,

anyhow, for I heard one feller say that we two fit th' best in

th' reg'ment, an' they had a great argument 'bout it. Another feller,

'a course, he had t' up an' say it was a lie--he seen all what was

goin' on an' he never seen us from th' beginnin' t' th' end. An' a

lot more stuck in an' ses it wasn't a lie--we did fight like thunder,

an' they give us quite a sendoff. But this is what I can't stand--

these everlastin' ol' soldiers, titterin' an' laughin', an then

that general, he's crazy."

The youth exclaimed with sudden exasperation: "He's a lunkhead!

He makes me mad. I wish he'd come along next time. We'd show

'im what--"

He ceased because several men had come hurrying up. Their faces

expressed a bringing of great news.

"O Flem, yeh jest oughta heard!" cried one, eagerly.

"Heard what?" said the youth.

"Yeh jest oughta heard!" repeated the other, and he arranged

himself to tell his tidings. The others made an excited circle.

"Well, sir, th' colonel met your lieutenant right by us--it was

damnedest thing I ever heard--an' he ses: 'Ahem! ahem!' he ses.

'Mr. Hasbrouck!' he ses, 'by th' way, who was that lad what carried

th' flag?' he ses. There, Flemin', what d' yeh think 'a that?

'Who was th' lad what carried th' flag?' he ses, an' th'

lieutenant, he speaks up right away: 'That's Flemin', an'

he's a jimhickey,' he ses, right away. What? I say he did.

'A jimhickey,' he ses--those 'r his words. He did, too. I say

he did. If you kin tell this story better than I kin, go ahead an'

tell it. Well, then, keep yer mouth shet. Th' lieutenant, he ses:

'He's a jimhickey,' and th' colonel, he ses: 'Ahem! ahem! he is,

indeed, a very good man t' have, ahem! He kep' th' flag 'way t'

th' front. I saw 'im. He's a good un,' ses th' colonel.

'You bet,' ses th' lieutenant, 'he an' a feller named Wilson was

at th' head 'a th' charge, an' howlin' like Indians all th' time,'

he ses. 'Head 'a th' charge all th' time,' he ses. 'A feller

named Wilson,' he ses. There, Wilson, m'boy, put that in a letter

an' send it hum t' yer mother, hay? 'A feller named Wilson,' he ses.

An' th' colonel, he ses: 'Were they, indeed? Ahem! ahem! My sakes!'

he ses. 'At th' head 'a th' reg'ment?' he ses. 'They were,' ses th'

lieutenant. 'My sakes!' ses th' colonel. He ses: 'Well, well, well,'

he ses. 'They deserve t' be major-generals.'"

The youth and his friend had said: "Huh!" "Yer lyin' Thompson."

"Oh, go t' blazes!" "He never sed it." "Oh, what a lie!" "Huh!"

But despite these youthful scoffings and embarrassments, they knew

that their faces were deeply flushing from thrills of pleasure.

They exchanged a secret glance of joy and congratulation.

They speedily forgot many things. The past held no pictures of error

and disappointment. They were very happy, and their hearts swelled

with grateful affection for the colonel and the youthful lieutenant.