Chapter 3

Chapter 3

When another night came, the columns, changed to purple streaks,

filed across two pontoon bridges. A glaring fire wine-tinted the

waters of the river. Its rays, shining upon the moving masses of troops,

brought forth here and there sudden gleams of silver or gold.

Upon the other shore a dark and mysterious range of hills was curved

against the sky. The insect voices of the night sang solemnly.

After this crossing the youth assured himself that at any moment

they might be suddenly and fearfully assaulted from the caves of

the lowering woods. He kept his eyes watchfully upon the darkness.

But his regiment went unmolested to a camping place, and its

soldiers slept the brave sleep of wearied men. In the morning

they were routed out with early energy, and hustled along a

narrow road that led deep into the forest.

It was during this rapid march that the regiment lost many of the

marks of a new command.

The men had begun to count the miles upon their fingers, and

they grew tired. "Sore feet an' damned short rations, that's all,"

said the loud soldier. There was perspiration and grumblings.

After a time they began to shed their knapsacks. Some tossed

them unconcernedly down; others hid them carefully, asserting

their plans to return for them at some convenient time.

Men extricated themselves from thick shirts. Presently few carried

anything but their necessary clothing, blankets, haversacks,

canteens, and arms and ammunition. "You can now eat and shoot,"

said the tall soldier to the youth. "That's all you want to do."

There was sudden change from the ponderous infantry of theory

to the light and speedy infantry of practice. The regiment,

relieved of a burden, received a new impetus. But there was much

loss of valuable knapsacks, and, on the whole, very good shirts.

But the regiment was not yet veteranlike in appearance. Veteran

regiments in the army were likely to be very small aggregations

of men. Once, when the command had first come to the field,

some perambulating veterans, noting the length of their column,

had accosted them thus: "Hey, fellers, what brigade is that?"

And when the men had replied that they formed a regiment and not

a brigade, the older soldiers had laughed, and said, "O Gawd!"

Also, there was too great a similarity in the hats. The hats of

a regiment should properly represent the history of headgear for

a period of years. And, moreover, there were no letters of faded

gold speaking from the colors. They were new and beautiful, and

the color bearer habitually oiled the pole.

Presently the army again sat down to think. The odor of the

peaceful pines was in the men's nostrils. The sound of

monotonous axe blows rang through the forest, and the insects,

nodding upon their perches, crooned like old women. The youth

returned to his theory of a blue demonstration.

One gray dawn, however, he was kicked in the leg by the

tall soldier, and then, before he was entirely awake, he found

himself running down a wood road in the midst of men who were

panting from the first effects of speed. His canteen banged

rythmically upon his thigh, and his haversack bobbed softly.

His musket bounced a trifle from his shoulder at each stride

and made his cap feel uncertain upon his head.

He could hear the men whisper jerky sentences: "Say--what's all

this--about?" "What th' thunder--we--skedaddlin' this way fer?"

"Billie--keep off m' feet. Yeh run--like a cow." And the loud

soldier's shrill voice could be heard: "What th'devil they in

sich a hurry for?"

The youth thought the damp fog of early morning moved from

the rush of a great body of troops. From the distance came

a sudden spatter of firing.

He was bewildered. As he ran with his comrades he strenuously

tried to think, but all he knew was that if he fell down those

coming behind would tread upon him. All his faculties seemed

to be needed to guide him over and past obstructions. He felt

carried along by a mob.

The sun spread disclosing rays, and, one by one, regiments burst

into view like armed men just born of the earth. The youth

perceived that the time had come. He was about to be measured.

For a moment he felt in the face of his great trial like a babe,

and the flesh over his heart seemed very thin. He seized time to

look about him calculatingly.

But he instantly saw that it would be impossible for him to

escape from the regiment. It inclosed him. And there were iron

laws of tradition and law on four sides. He was in a moving box.

As he perceived this fact it occurred to him that he had never

wished to come to the war. He had not enlisted of his free will.

He had been dragged by the merciless government. And now they

were taking him out to be slaughtered.

The regiment slid down a bank and wallowed across a little stream.

The mournful current moved slowly on, and from the water,

shaded black, some white bubble eyes looked at the men.

As they climbed the hill on the farther side artillery began to boom.

Here the youth forgot many things as he felt a sudden impulse of curiosity.

He scrambled up the bank with a speed that could not be exceeded by a

bloodthirsty man.

He expected a battle scene.

There were some little fields girted and squeezed by a forest.

Spread over the grass and in among the tree trunks, he could see

knots and waving lines of skirmishers who were running hither and

thither and firing at the landscape. A dark battle line lay upon

a sunstruck clearing that gleamed orange color. A flag fluttered.

Other regiments floundered up the bank. The brigade was formed

in line of battle, and after a pause started slowly through

the woods in the rear of the receding skirmishers, who were

continually melting into the scene to appear again farther on.

They were always busy as bees, deeply absorbed in their little combats.

The youth tried to observe everything. He did not use care to

avoid trees and branches, and his forgotten feet were constantly

knocking against stones or getting entangled in briers. He was

aware that these battalions with their commotions were woven red

and startling into the gentle fabric of softened greens and browns.

It looked to be a wrong place for a battle field.

The skirmishers in advance fascinated him. Their shots into

thickets and at distant and prominent trees spoke to him of

tragedies--hidden, mysterious, solemn.

Once the line encountered the body of a dead soldier. He lay

upon his back staring at the sky. He was dressed in an awkward

suit of yellowish brown. The youth could see that the soles of

his shoes had been worn to the thinness of writing paper, and

from a great rent in one the dead foot projected piteously. And

it was as if fate had betrayed the soldier. In death it exposed

to his enemies that poverty which in life he had perhaps concealed

from his friends.

The ranks opened covertly to avoid the corpse. The invulnerable

dead man forced a way for himself. The youth looked keenly at

the ashen face. The wind raised the tawny beard. It moved as if

a hand were stroking it. He vaguely desired to walk around and

around the body and stare; the impulse of the living to try to

read in dead eyes the answer to the Question.

During the march the ardor which the youth had acquired when out

of view of the field rapidly faded to nothing. His curiosity was

quite easily satisfied. If an intense scene had caught him with

its wild swing as he came to the top of the bank, he might have

gone gone roaring on. This advance upon Nature was too calm.

He had opportunity to reflect. He had time in which to wonder

about himself and to attempt to probe his sensations.

Absurd ideas took hold upon him. He thought that he did not

relish the landscape. It threatened him. A coldness swept over

his back, and it is true that his trousers felt to him that they

were no fit for his legs at all.

A house standing placidly in distant fields had to him an ominous look.

The shadows of the woods were formidable. He was certain that in this

vista there lurked fierce-eyed hosts. The swift thought came to him

that the generals did not know what they were about. It was all a trap.

Suddenly those close forests would bristle with rifle barrels.

Ironlike brigades would appear in the rear. They were all going

to be sacrificed. The generals were stupids. The enemy would

presently swallow the whole command. He glared about him,

expecting to see the stealthy approach of his death.

He thought that he must break from the ranks and harangue his comrades.

They must not all be killed like pigs; and he was sure it would come to

pass unless they were informed of these dangers. The generals were

idiots to send them marching into a regular pen. There was but one

pair of eyes in the corps. He would step forth and make a speech.

Shrill and passionate words came to his lips.

The line, broken into moving fragments by the ground, went calmly on

through fields and woods. The youth looked at the men nearest him,

and saw, for the most part, expressions of deep interest, as if

they were investigating something that had fascinated them.

One or two stepped with overvaliant airs as if they were

already plunged into war. Others walked as upon thin ice.

The greater part of the untested men appeared quiet and absorbed.

They were going to look at war, the red animal--war, the blood-swollen god.

And they were deeply engrossed in this march.

As he looked the youth gripped his outcry at his throat.

He saw that even if the men were tottering with fear they would

laugh at his warning. They would jeer him, and, if practicable,

pelt him with missiles. Admitting that he might be wrong,

a frenzied declamation of the kind would turn him into a worm.

He assumed, then, the demeanor of one who knows that he is doomed

alone to unwritten responsibilities. He lagged, with tragic

glances at the sky.

He was surprised presently by the young lieutenant of his company,

who began heartily to beat him with a sword, calling out in a loud

and insolent voice: "Come, young man, get up into ranks there.

No skulking 'll do here." He mended his pace with suitable haste.

And he hated the lieutenant, who had no appreciation of fine minds.

He was a mere brute.

After a time the brigade was halted in the cathedral light of a forest.

The busy skirmishers were still popping. Through the aisles of the

wood could be seen the floating smoke from their rifles.

Sometimes it went up in little balls, white and compact.

During this halt many men in the regiment began erecting tiny hills

in front of them. They used stones sticks, earth, and anything

they thought might turn a bullet. Some built comparatively

large ones, while others seems content with little ones.

This procedure caused a discussion among the men. Some wished to

fight like duelists, believing it to be correct to stand erect and be,

from their feet to their foreheads, a mark. They said they scorned

the devices of the cautious. But the others scoffed in reply,

and pointed to the veterans on the flanks who were digging at the

ground like terriers. In a short time there was quite a barricade

along the regimental fronts. Directly, however, they were ordered

to withdraw from that place.

This astounded the youth. He forgot his stewing over the

advance movement. "Well, then, what did they march us out here for?"

he demanded of the tall soldier. The latter with calm faith began

a heavy explanation, although he had been compelled to leave a

little protection of stones and dirt to which he had devoted

much care and skill.

When the regiment was aligned in another position each man's

regard for his safety caused another line of small intrenchments.

They ate their noon meal behind a third one. They were moved from

this one also. They were marched from place to place with apparent

aimlessness.

The youth had been taught that a man became another thing in

battle. He saw his salvation in such a change. Hence this

waiting was an ordeal to him. He was in a fever of impatience.

He considered that there was denoted a lack of purpose on the

part of the generals. He began to complain to the tall soldier.

"I can't stand this much longer," he cried. "I don't see what

good it does to make us wear out our legs for nothin'." He wished

to return to camp, knowing that this affair was a blue demonstration;

or else to go into a battle and discover that he had been a fool

in his doubts, and was, in truth, a man of traditional courage.

The strain of present circumstances he felt to be intolerable.

The philosophical tall soldier measured a sandwich of cracker and

pork and swallowed it in a nonchalant manner. "Oh, I suppose we

must go reconnoitering around the country jest to keep 'em from

getting too close, or to develop 'em, or something."

"Huh!" said the loud soldier.

"Well," cried the youth, still fidgeting, "I'd rather do anything

'most than go tramping 'round the country all day doing no good

to nobody and jest tiring ourselves out."

"So would I," said the loud soldier. "It ain't right. I tell

you if anybody with any sense was a-runnin' this army it--"

"Oh, shut up!" roared the tall private. "You little fool. You

little damn' cuss. You ain't had that there coat and them pants

on for six months, and yet you talk as if--"

"Well, I wanta do some fighting anyway," interrupted the other.

"I didn't come here to walk. I could 'ave walked to home -

'round an' 'round the barn, if I jest wanted to walk."

The tall one, red-faced, swallowed another sandwich as if taking

poison in despair.

But gradually, as he chewed, his face became again quiet and

contented. He could not rage in fierce argument in the presence

of such sandwiches. During his meals he always wore an air of

blissful contemplation of the food he had swallowed. His spirit

seemed then to be communing with the viands.

He accepted new environment and circumstance with great coolness,

eating from his haversack at every opportunity. On the march he

went along with the stride of a hunter, objecting to neither

gait nor distance. And he had not raised his voice when he had

been ordered away from three little protective piles of earth

and stone, each of which had been an engineering feat worthy of

being made sacred to the name of his grandmother.

In the afternoon, the regiment went out over the same ground it

had taken in the morning. The landscape then ceased to threaten

the youth. He had been close to it and become familiar with it.

When, however, they began to pass into a new region, his old fears

of stupidity and incompetence reassailed him, but this time

he doggedly let them babble. He was occupied with his problem,

and in his deperation he concluded that the stupidity did not

greatly matter.

Once he thought he had concluded that it would be better to get

killed directly and end his troubles. Regarding death thus out

of the corner of his eye, he conceived it to be nothing but rest,

and he was filled with a momentary astonishment that he should have

made an extraordinary commotion over the mere matter of getting killed.

He would die; he would go to some place where he would be understood.

It was useless to expect appreciation of his profound and fine sense from

such men as the lieutenant. He must look to the grave for comprehension.

The skirmish fire increased to a long clattering sound. With it

was mingled far-away cheering. A battery spoke.

Directly the youth could see the skirmishers running. They were

pursued by the sound of musketry fire. After a time the hot,

dangerous flashes of the rifles were visible. Smoke clouds went

slowly and insolently across the fields like observant phantoms.

The din became crescendo, like the roar of an oncoming train.

A brigade ahead of them and on the right went into action with a

rending roar. It was as if it had exploded. And thereafter it

lay stretched in the distance behind a long gray wall, that one

was obliged to look twice at to make sure that it was smoke.

The youth, forgetting his neat plan of getting killed, gazed spell bound.

His eyes grew wide and busy with the action of the scene. His mouth was

a little ways open.

Of a sudden he felt a heavy and sad hand laid upon his shoulder.

Awakening from his trance of observation he turned and beheld

the loud soldier.

"It's my first and last battle, old boy," said the latter, with

intense gloom. He was quite pale and his girlish lip was trembling.

"Eh?" murmured the youth in great astonishment.

"It's my first and last battle, old boy," continued the loud

soldier. "Something tells me--"

"What?"

"I'm a gone coon this first time and--and I w-want you to take

these here things--to--my--folks." He ended in a quavering

sob of pity for himself. He handed the youth a little packet

done up in a yellow envelope.

"Why, what the devil--" began the youth again.

But the other gave him a glance as from the depths of a tomb,

and raised his limp hand in a prophetic manner and turned away.