Read The Little Regiment, and Other Episodes of the American Civil War Page 6

  VI.

  "I seen Dan shoot a feller yesterday. Yes sir. I'm sure it was him thatdone it. And maybe he thinks about that feller now, and wonders if _he_tumbled down just about the same way. Them things come up in a man'smind."

  Bivouac fires upon the sidewalks, in the streets, in the yards, threwhigh their wavering reflections, which examined, like slim, red fingers,the dingy, scarred walls and the piles of tumbled brick. The droning ofvoices again arose from great blue crowds.

  The odour of frying bacon, the fragrance from countless littlecoffee-pails floated among the ruins. The rifles, stacked in theshadows, emitted flashes of steely light. Wherever a a flag layhorizontally from one stack to another was the bed of an eagle which hadled men into the mystic smoke.

  The men about a particular fire were engaged in holding in check theirjovial spirits. They moved whispering around the blaze, although theylooked at it with a certain fine contentment, like labourers after aday's hard work.

  There was one who sat apart. They did not address him save in tonessuddenly changed. They did not regard him directly, but always in littlesidelong glances.

  At last a soldier from a distant fire came into this circle of light. Hestudied for a time the man who sat apart. Then he hesitatingly steppedcloser, and said: "Got any news, Dan?"

  "No," said Dan.

  The new-comer shifted his feet. He looked at the fire, at the sky, atthe other men, at Dan. His face expressed a curious despair; his tonguewas plainly in rebellion. Finally, however, he contrived to say: "Well,there's some chance yet, Dan. Lots of the wounded are still lying outthere, you know. There's some chance yet."

  "Yes," said Dan.

  The soldier shifted his feet again, and looked miserably into the air.After another struggle he said: "Well, there's some chance yet, Dan." Hemoved hastily away.

  One of the men of the squad, perhaps encouraged by this example, nowapproached the still figure. "No news yet, hey?" he said, after coughingbehind his hand.

  "No," said Dan.

  "Well," said the man, "I've been thinking of how he was fretting aboutyou the night you went on special duty. You recollect? Well, sir, I wassurprised. He couldn't say enough about it. I swan, I don't believe heslep' a wink after you left, but just lay awake cussing special duty andworrying. I was surprised. But there he lay cussing. He----"

  Dan made a curious sound, as if a stone had wedged in his throat. Hesaid: "Shut up, will you?"

  Afterward the men would not allow this moody contemplation of the fireto be interrupted.

  "Oh, let him alone, can't you?"

  "Come away from there, Casey!"

  "Say, can't you leave him be?"

  They moved with reverence about the immovable figure, with itscountenance of mask-like invulnerability.