A SPUTTERING of musketry was always to be heard.Later, the cannon had entered the dis-pute.In the fog-filled air their voices made a thudding sound.The reverberations were con-tinued.This part of the world led a strange, battleful existence.
The youth's regiment was marched to relieve a command that had lain long in some damp trenches.The men took positions behind a curv-ing line of rifle pits that had been turned up, like a large furrow, along the line of woods.Before them was a level stretch, peopled with short, deformed stumps.From the woods beyond came the dull popping of the skirmishers and pickets, firing in the fog.From the right came the noise of a terrific fracas.
The men cuddled behind the small embank-
ment and sat in easy attitudes awaiting their turn.Many had their backs to the firing.The youth's friend lay down, buried his face in his 154arms, and almost instantly, it seemed, he was in a deep sleep.
The youth leaned his breast against the brown dirt and peered over at the woods and up and down the line.Curtains of trees interfered with his ways of vision.He could see the low line of trenches but for a short distance.A few idle flags were perched on the dirt hills.Behind them were rows of dark bodies with a few heads sticking curiously over the top.
Always the noise of skirmishers came from the woods on the front and left, and the din on the right had grown to frightful proportions.
The guns were roaring without an instant's pause for breath.It seemed that the cannon had come from all parts and were engaged in a stupendous wrangle.It became impossible to make a sen-tence heard.
The youth wished to launch a joke--a quota-tion from newspapers.He desired to say, "All quiet on the Rappahannock," but the guns refused to permit even a comment upon their uproar.
He never successfully concluded the sentence.
But at last the guns stopped, and among the men in the rifle pits rumors again flew, like birds, but they were now for the most part black creatures who flapped their wings drearily near to the ground and refused to rise on any wings of hope.The men's faces grew doleful from the interpreting of omens.Tales of hesitation and uncertainty on the part of those high in place and responsibility came to their ears.Stories of disaster were borne into their minds with many proofs.This din of musketry on the right, grow-ing like a released genie of sound, expressed and emphasized the army's plight.
The men were disheartened and began to mutter.They made gestures expressive of the sentence: "Ah, what more can we do?" And it could always be seen that they were bewildered by the alleged news and could not fully compre-hend a defeat.
Before the gray mists had been totally ob-literated by the sun rays, the regiment was march-ing in a spread column that was retiring carefully through the woods.The disordered, hurrying lines of the enemy could sometimes be seen down through the groves and little fields.They were yelling, shrill and exultant.
At this sight the youth forgot many personal matters and became greatly enraged.He ex-ploded in loud sentences."B'jiminey, we're generaled by a lot 'a lunkheads.""More than one feller has said that t'-day,"observed a man.
His friend, recently aroused, was still very drowsy.He looked behind him until his mind took in the meaning of the movement.Then he sighed."Oh, well, I s'pose we got licked," he remarked sadly.
The youth had a thought that it would not be handsome for him to freely condemn other men.
He made an attempt to restrain himself, but the words upon his tongue were too bitter.He presently began a long and intricate denunciation of the commander of the forces.
"Mebbe, it wa'n't all his fault--not all to-gether.He did th' best he knowed.It's our luck t' git licked often," said his friend in a weary tone.He was trudging along with stooped shoulders and shifting eyes like a man who has been caned and kicked.
"Well, don't we fight like the devil? Don't we do all that men can?" demanded the youth loudly.
He was secretly dumfounded at this sentiment when it came from his lips.For a moment his face lost its valor and he looked guiltily about him.But no one questioned his right to deal in such words, and presently he recovered his air of courage.He went on to repeat a statement he had heard going from group to group at the camp that morning."The brigadier said he never saw a new reg'ment fight the way we fought yestirday, didn't he? And we didn't do better than many another reg'ment, did we?
Well, then, you can't say it's th' army's fault, can you?"In his reply, the friend's voice was stern."'Acourse not," he said."No man dare say we don't fight like th' devil.No man will ever dare say it.Th' boys fight like hell-roosters.But still--still, we don't have no luck.""Well, then, if we fight like the devil an'
don't ever whip, it must be the general's fault,"said the youth grandly and decisively."And Idon't see any sense in fighting and fighting and fighting, yet always losing through some derned old lunkhead of a general."A sarcastic man who was tramping at the youth's side, then spoke lazily."Mebbe yeh think yeh fit th' hull battle yestirday, Fleming,"he remarked.