CHAPTER III.
WHEN another night came the columns, changed to purple streaks, filedacross two pontoon bridges. A glaring fire wine-tinted the waters ofthe river. Its rays, shining upon the moving masses of troops, broughtforth here and there sudden gleams of silver or gold. Upon the othershore 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 theymight be suddenly and fearfully assaulted from the caves of thelowering woods. He kept his eyes watchfully upon the darkness.
But his regiment went unmolested to a camping place, and its soldiersslept the brave sleep of wearied men. In the morning they were routedout with early energy, and hustled along a narrow road that led deepinto the forest.
It was during this rapid march that the regiment lost many of the marksof a new command.
The men had begun to count the miles upon their fingers, and they grewtired. "Sore feet an' damned short rations, that's all," said the loudsoldier. There was perspiration and grumblings. After a time theybegan to shed their knapsacks. Some tossed them unconcernedly down;others hid them carefully, asserting their plans to return for them atsome 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 andshoot," 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 thelight and speedy infantry of practice. The regiment, relieved of aburden, received a new impetus. But there was much loss of valuableknapsacks, and, on the whole, very good shirts.
But the regiment was not yet veteranlike in appearance. Veteranregiments in the army were likely to be very small aggregations of men.Once, when the command had first come to the field, some perambulatingveterans, noting the length of their column, had accosted them thus:"Hey, fellers, what brigade is that?" And when the men had repliedthat they formed a regiment and not a brigade, the older soldiers hadlaughed, and said, "O Gawd!"
Also, there was too great a similarity in the hats. The hats of aregiment should properly represent the history of headgear for a periodof years. And, moreover, there were no letters of faded gold speakingfrom the colors. They were new and beautiful, and the color bearerhabitually oiled the pole.
Presently the army again sat down to think. The odor of the peacefulpines was in the men's nostrils. The sound of monotonous axe blowsrang through the forest, and the insects, nodding upon their perches,crooned like old women. The youth returned to his theory of a bluedemonstration.
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 awood road in the midst of men who were panting from the first effectsof speed. His canteen banged rhythmically upon his thigh, and hishaversack bobbed softly. His musket bounced a trifle from his shoulderat each stride and made his cap feel uncertain upon his head.
He could hear the men whisper jerky sentences: "Say--what's allthis--about?" "What th' thunder--we--skedaddlin' this way fer?""Billie--keep off m' feet. Yeh run--like a cow." And the loudsoldier's shrill voice could be heard: "What th' devil they in sich ahurry for?"
The youth thought the damp fog of early morning moved from the rush ofa great body of troops. From the distance came a sudden spatter offiring.
He was bewildered. As he ran with his comrades he strenuously tried tothink, but all he knew was that if he fell down those coming behindwould tread upon him. All his faculties seemed to be needed to guidehim over and past obstructions. He felt carried along by a mob.
The sun spread disclosing rays, and, one by one, regiments burst intoview like armed men just born of the earth. The youth perceived thatthe time had come. He was about to be measured. For a moment he feltin the face of his great trial like a babe, and the flesh over hisheart seemed very thin. He seized time to look about him calculatingly.
But he instantly saw that it would be impossible for him to escape fromthe regiment. It inclosed him. And there were iron laws of traditionand law on four sides. He was in a moving box.
As he perceived this fact it occurred to him that he had never wishedto come to the war. He had not enlisted of his free will. He had beendragged by the merciless government. And now they were taking him outto be slaughtered.
The regiment slid down a bank and wallowed across a little stream. Themournful 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 ofcuriosity. He scrambled up the bank with a speed that could not beexceeded by a bloodthirsty man.
He expected a battle scene.
There were some little fields girted and squeezed by a forest. Spreadover the grass and in among the tree trunks, he could see knots andwaving lines of skirmishers who were running hither and thither andfiring at the landscape. A dark battle line lay upon a sunstruckclearing that gleamed orange color. A flag fluttered.
Other regiments floundered up the bank. The brigade was formed in lineof battle, and after a pause started slowly through the woods in therear of the receding skirmishers, who were continually melting into thescene 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 avoidtrees and branches, and his forgotten feet were constantly knockingagainst stones or getting entangled in briers. He was aware that thesebattalions with their commotions were woven red and startling into thegentle fabric of softened greens and browns. It looked to be a wrongplace for a battle field.
The skirmishers in advance fascinated him. Their shots into thicketsand 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 hisback staring at the sky. He was dressed in an awkward suit of yellowishbrown. The youth could see that the soles of his shoes had been wornto the thinness of writing paper, and from a great rent in one the deadfoot projected piteously. And it was as if fate had betrayed thesoldier. In death it exposed to his enemies that poverty which in lifehe had perhaps concealed from his friends.
The ranks opened covertly to avoid the corpse. The invulnerable deadman forced a way for himself. The youth looked keenly at the ashenface. The wind raised the tawny beard. It moved as if a hand werestroking it. He vaguely desired to walk around and around the body andstare; the impulse of the living to try to read in dead eyes the answerto the Question.
During the march the ardor which the youth had acquired when out ofview of the field rapidly faded to nothing. His curiosity was quiteeasily satisfied. If an intense scene had caught him with its wildswing as he came to the top of the bank, he might have 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 probehis sensations.
Absurd ideas took hold upon him. He thought that he did not relish thelandscape. It threatened him. A coldness swept over his back, and itis true that his trousers felt to him that they were no fit for hislegs 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 thisvista there lurked fierce-eyed hosts. The swift thought came to himthat the generals did not know what they were about. It was all atrap. Suddenly those close forests would bristle with rifle barrels.Ironlike brigades would appear in the rear. They were all going to besacrificed. The generals were stupids. The enemy would presentlyswallow the whole command. He glared about him, expecting to see thestealthy approach of his death.
He thought that he must break from the ranks and harangue his comrades.They must not all be killed lik
e pigs; and he was sure it would come topass unless they were informed of these dangers. The generals wereidiots to send them marching into a regular pen. There was but onepair 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 onthrough fields and woods. The youth looked at the men nearest him, andsaw, for the most part, expressions of deep interest, as if they wereinvestigating something that had fascinated them. One or two steppedwith overvaliant airs as if they were already plunged into war. Otherswalked as upon thin ice. The greater part of the untested men appearedquiet and absorbed. They were going to look at war, the redanimal--war, the blood-swollen god. And they were deeply engrossed inthis march.
As he looked the youth gripped his outcry at his throat. He saw thateven if the men were tottering with fear they would laugh at hiswarning. They would jeer him, and, if practicable, pelt him withmissiles. Admitting that he might be wrong, a frenzied declamation ofthe kind would turn him into a worm.
He assumed, then, the demeanor of one who knows that he is doomed aloneto unwritten responsibilities. He lagged, with tragic glances at thesky.
He was surprised presently by the young lieutenant of his company, whobegan heartily to beat him with a sword, calling out in a loud andinsolent voice: "Come, young man, get up into ranks there. Noskulking'll do here." He mended his pace with suitable haste. And hehated the lieutenant, who had no appreciation of fine minds. He was amere 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 thewood could be seen the floating smoke from their rifles. Sometimes itwent up in little balls, white and compact.
During this halt many men in the regiment began erecting tiny hills infront of them. They used stones, sticks, earth, and anything theythought might turn a bullet. Some built comparatively large ones,while others seemed content with little ones.
This procedure caused a discussion among the men. Some wished to fightlike duelists, believing it to be correct to stand erect and be, fromtheir feet to their foreheads, a mark. They said they scorned thedevices of the cautious. But the others scoffed in reply, and pointedto the veterans on the flanks who were digging at the ground liketerriers. In a short time there was quite a barricade along theregimental fronts. Directly, however, they were ordered to withdrawfrom that place.
This astounded the youth. He forgot his stewing over the advancemovement. "Well, then, what did they march us out here for?" hedemanded of the tall soldier. The latter with calm faith began a heavyexplanation, although he had been compelled to leave a littleprotection of stones and dirt to which he had devoted much care andskill.
When the regiment was aligned in another position each man's regard forhis safety caused another line of small intrenchments. They ate theirnoon meal behind a third one. They were moved from this one also. Theywere marched from place to place with apparent aimlessness.
The youth had been taught that a man became another thing in a battle.He saw his salvation in such a change. Hence this waiting was anordeal to him. He was in a fever of impatience. He considered thatthere was denoted a lack of purpose on the part of the generals. Hebegan to complain to the tall soldier. "I can't stand this muchlonger," he cried. "I don't see what good it does to make us wear outour legs for nothin'." He wished to return to camp, knowing that thisaffair was a blue demonstration; or else to go into a battle anddiscover that he had been a fool in his doubts, and was, in truth, aman of traditional courage. The strain of present circumstances he feltto be intolerable.
The philosophical tall soldier measured a sandwich of cracker and porkand swallowed it in a nonchalant manner. "Oh, I suppose we must goreconnoitering around the country jest to keep 'em from getting tooclose, or to develop 'em, or something."
"Huh!" said the loud soldier.
"Well," cried the youth, still fidgeting, "I'd rather do anything 'mostthan go tramping 'round the country all day doing no good to nobody andjest tiring ourselves out."
"So would I," said the loud soldier. "It ain't right. I tell you ifanybody with any sense was a-runnin' this army it--"
"Oh, shut up!" roared the tall private. "You little fool. You littledamn' cuss. You ain't had that there coat and them pants on for sixmonths, and yet you talk as if--"
"Well, I wanta do some fighting anyway," interrupted the other. "Ididn'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 poisonin despair.
But gradually, as he chewed, his face became again quiet and contented.He could not rage in fierce argument in the presence of suchsandwiches. During his meals he always wore an air of blissfulcontemplation of the food he had swallowed. His spirit seemed then tobe communing with the viands.
He accepted new environment and circumstance with great coolness,eating from his haversack at every opportunity. On the march he wentalong with the stride of a hunter, objecting to neither gait nordistance. And he had not raised his voice when he had been orderedaway from three little protective piles of earth and stone, each ofwhich had been an engineering feat worthy of being made sacred to thename of his grandmother.
In the afternoon the regiment went out over the same ground it hadtaken 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 ofstupidity and incompetence reassailed him, but this time he doggedlylet them babble. He was occupied with his problem, and in hisdesperation he concluded that the stupidity did not greatly matter.
Once he thought he had concluded that it would be better to get killeddirectly and end his troubles. Regarding death thus out of the cornerof his eye, he conceived it to be nothing but rest, and he was filledwith a momentary astonishment that he should have made an extraordinarycommotion over the mere matter of getting killed. He would die; hewould go to some place where he would be understood. It was useless toexpect appreciation of his profound and fine senses from such men asthe lieutenant. He must look to the grave for comprehension.
The skirmish fire increased to a long chattering sound. With it wasmingled far-away cheering. A battery spoke.
Directly the youth would see the skirmishers running. They werepursued by the sound of musketry fire. After a time the hot, dangerousflashes of the rifles were visible. Smoke clouds went slowly andinsolently across the fields like observant phantoms. The din becamecrescendo, like the roar of an oncoming train.
A brigade ahead of them and on the right went into action with arending roar. It was as if it had exploded. And thereafter it laystretched in the distance behind a long gray wall, that one was obligedto look twice at to make sure that it was smoke.
The youth, forgetting his neat plan of getting killed, gazed spellbound. His eyes grew wide and busy with the action of the scene. Hismouth 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 loudsoldier.
"It's my first and last battle, old boy," said the latter, with intensegloom. 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 thesehere things--to--my--folks." He ended in a quavering sob of pity forhimself. He handed the youth a little packet done up in a yellowenvelope.
"Why, what the devil--" began the youth again.
But the other gave him a glance as from the depths of a tomb, andraised his limp hand in a prophetic manner and turned away.