III.
The corporal looked after his captain with an expression of mingledamazement, grief, and philosophy. He seemed to be saying to himself thatthere unfortunately were times, after all, when one could not rely uponthe most reliable of men. When he returned to the group he found thecaptain bending over the girl and saying, "Why is it that you don't wantus to search upstairs?"
The girl's head was buried in her crossed arms. Locks of her hair hadescaped from their fastenings and these fell upon her shoulder.
"Won't you tell me?"
The corporal here winked again at the man next to him.
"Because," the girl moaned--"because--there isn't anybody up there."
The captain at last said timidly, "Well, I'm afraid--I'm afraid we'llhave to----"
The girl sprang to her feet again, and implored him with her hands. Shelooked deep into his eyes with her glance, which was at this time likethat of the fawn when it says to the hunter, "Have mercy upon me!"
These two stood regarding each other. The captain's foot was on thebottom step, but he seemed to be shrinking. He wore an air of beingdeeply wretched and ashamed. There was a silence.
Suddenly the corporal said in a quick, low tone, "Look out, captain!"
All turned their eyes swiftly toward the head of the stairs. There hadappeared there a youth in a gray uniform. He stood looking coolly downat them. No word was said by the troopers. The girl gave vent to alittle wail of desolation, "O Harry!"
He began slowly to descend the stairs. His right arm was in a whitesling, and there were some fresh blood stains upon the cloth. His facewas rigid and deathly pale, but his eyes flashed like lights. The girlwas again moaning in an utterly dreary fashion, as the youth came slowlydown toward the silent men in blue.
Six steps from the bottom of the flight he halted and said, "I reckonit's me you're looking for."
The troopers had crowded forward a trifle and, posed in lithe, nervousattitudes, were watching him like cats. The captain remained unmoved. Atthe youth's question he merely nodded his head and said, "Yes."
The young man in gray looked down at the girl, and then, in the sameeven tone which now, however, seemed to vibrate with suppressed fury, hesaid, "And is that any reason why you should insult my sister?"
At this sentence, the girl intervened, desperately, between the youngman in gray and the officer in blue. "Oh, don't, Harry, don't! He wasgood to me! He was good to me, Harry--indeed he was!"
The youth came on in his quiet, erect fashion until the girl could havetouched either of the men with her hand, for the captain still remainedwith his foot upon the first step. She continually repeated: "O Harry! OHarry!"
The youth in gray man[oe]uvred to glare into the captain's face, firstover one shoulder of the girl and then over the other. In a voice thatrang like metal, he said: "You are armed and unwounded, while I have noweapons and am wounded; but----"
The captain had stepped back and sheathed his sabre. The eyes of thesetwo men were gleaming fire, but otherwise the captain's countenance wasimperturbable. He said: "You are mistaken. You have no reason to----"
"You lie!"
All save the captain and the youth in gray started in an electricmovement. These two words crackled in the air like shattered glass.There was a breathless silence.
The captain cleared his throat. His look at the youth contained aquality of singular and terrible ferocity, but he said in his stolidtone, "I don't suppose you mean what you say now."
Upon his arm he had felt the pressure of some unconscious littlefingers. The girl was leaning against the wall as if she no longer knewhow to keep her balance, but those fingers--he held his arm very still.She murmured: "O Harry, don't! He was good to me--indeed he was!"
The corporal had come forward until he in a measure confronted the youthin gray, for he saw those fingers upon the captain's arm, and he knewthat sometimes very strong men were not able to move hand nor foot undersuch conditions.
The youth had suddenly seemed to become weak. He breathed heavily andclung to the rail. He was glaring at the captain, and apparentlysummoning all his will power to combat his weakness. The corporaladdressed him with profound straightforwardness, "Don't you be a dernedfool!" The youth turned toward him so fiercely that the corporal threwup a knee and an elbow like a boy who expects to be cuffed.
The girl pleaded with the captain. "You won't hurt him, will you? Hedon't know what he's saying. He's wounded, you know. Please don't mindhim!"
"I won't touch him," said the captain, with rather extraordinaryearnestness; "don't you worry about him at all. I won't touch him!"
Then he looked at her, and the girl suddenly withdrew her fingers fromhis arm.
The corporal contemplated the top of the stairs, and remarked withoutsurprise, "There's another of 'em coming!"
An old man was clambering down the stairs with much speed. He waved acane wildly. "Get out of my house, you thieves! Get out! I won't haveyou cross my threshold! Get out!" He mumbled and wagged his head in anold man's fury. It was plainly his intention to assault them.
And so it occurred that a young girl became engaged in protecting astalwart captain, fully armed, and with eight grim troopers at his back,from the attack of an old man with a walking-stick!
A blush passed over the temples and brow of the captain, and he lookedparticularly savage and weary. Despite the girl's efforts, he suddenlyfaced the old man.
"Look here," he said distinctly, "we came in because we had beenfighting in the woods yonder, and we concluded that some of the enemywere in this house, especially when we saw a gray sleeve at the window.But this young man is wounded, and I have nothing to say to him. I willeven take it for granted that there are no others like him upstairs. Wewill go away, leaving your d----d old house just as we found it! And weare no more thieves and rascals than you are!"
The old man simply roared: "I haven't got a cow nor a pig nor a chickenon the place! Your soldiers have stolen everything they could carryaway. They have torn down half my fences for firewood. This afternoonsome of your accursed bullets even broke my window panes!"
The girl had been faltering: "Grandpa! O grandpa!"
The captain looked at the girl. She returned his glance from the shadowof the old man's shoulder. After studying her face a moment, he said,"Well, we will go now." He strode toward the door and his men clankeddocilely after him.
At this time there was the sound of harsh cries and rushing footstepsfrom without. The door flew open, and a whirlwind composed ofblue-coated troopers came in with a swoop. It was headed by thelieutenant. "Oh, here you are!" he cried, catching his breath. "Wethought----Oh, look at the girl!"
The captain said intensely, "Shut up, you fool!"
The men settled to a halt with a clash and a bang. There could be heardthe dulled sound of many hoofs outside of the house.
"Did you order up the horses?" inquired the captain.
"Yes. We thought----"
"Well, then, let's get out of here," interrupted the captain morosely.
The men began to filter out into the open air. The youth in gray hadbeen hanging dismally to the railing of the stairway. He now wasclimbing slowly up to the second floor. The old man was addressinghimself directly to the serene corporal.
"Not a chicken on the place!" he cried.
"Well, I didn't take your chickens, did I?"
"No, maybe you didn't, but----"
The captain crossed the hall and stood before the girl in rather aculprit's fashion. "You are not angry at me, are you?" he asked timidly.
"No," she said. She hesitated a moment, and then suddenly held out herhand. "You were good to me--and I'm--much obliged."
The captain took her hand, and then he blushed, for he found himselfunable to formulate a sentence that applied in any way to the situation.
She did not seem to heed that hand for a time.
He loosened his grasp presently, for he was ashamed to hold it so longwithout saying anything clever. At last, with an a
ir of charging anintrenched brigade, he contrived to say, "I would rather do anythingthan frighten or trouble you."
His brow was warmly perspiring. He had a sense of being hideous in hisdusty uniform and with his grimy face.
She said, "Oh, I'm so glad it was you instead of somebody who mighthave--might have hurt brother Harry and grandpa!"
He told her, "I wouldn't have hurt 'em for anything!"
There was a little silence.
"Well, good-bye!" he said at last.
"Good-bye!"
He walked toward the door past the old man, who was scolding at thevanishing figure of the corporal. The captain looked back. She hadremained there watching him.
At the bugle's order, the troopers standing beside their horses swungbriskly into the saddle. The lieutenant said to the first sergeant:
"Williams, did they ever meet before?"
"Hanged if I know!"
"Well, say----"
The captain saw a curtain move at one of the windows. He cantered fromhis position at the head of the column and steered his horse between twoflower beds.
"Well, good-bye!"
The squadron trampled slowly past.
"Good-bye!"
They shook hands.
He evidently had something enormously important to say to her, but itseems that he could not manage it. He struggled heroically. The baycharger, with his great mystically solemn eyes, looked around the cornerof his shoulder at the girl.
The captain studied a pine tree. The girl inspected the grass beneaththe window. The captain said hoarsely, "I don't suppose--I don'tsuppose--I'll ever see you again!"
She looked at him affrightedly and shrank back from the window. Heseemed to have woefully expected a reception of this kind for hisquestion. He gave her instantly a glance of appeal.
She said, "Why, no, I don't suppose we will."
"Never?"
"Why, no, 'tain't possible. You--you are a--Yankee!"
"Oh, I know it, but----" Eventually he continued, "Well, some day, youknow, when there's no more fighting, we might----" He observed that shehad again withdrawn suddenly into the shadow, so he said, "Well,good-bye!"
When he held her fingers she bowed her head, and he saw a pink blushsteal over the curves of her cheek and neck.
"Am I never going to see you again?"
She made no reply.
"Never?" he repeated.
After a long time, he bent over to hear a faint reply: "Sometimes--whenthere are no troops in the neighbourhood--grandpa don't mind if I--walkover as far as that old oak tree yonder--in the afternoons."
It appeared that the captain's grip was very strong, for she uttered anexclamation and looked at her fingers as if she expected to find themmere fragments. He rode away.
The bay horse leaped a flower bed. They were almost to the drive, whenthe girl uttered a panic-stricken cry.
The captain wheeled his horse violently and upon his return journey wentstraight through a flower bed.
The girl had clasped her hands. She beseeched him wildly with her eyes."Oh, please, don't believe it! I never walk to the old oak tree. Indeed,I don't! I never--never--never walk there."
The bridle drooped on the bay charger's neck. The captain's figureseemed limp. With an expression of profound dejection and gloom hestared off at where the leaden sky met the dark green line of the woods.The long-impending rain began to fall with a mournful patter, drop anddrop. There was a silence.
At last a low voice said, "Well--I might--sometimes Imight--perhaps--but only once in a great while--I might walk to the oldtree--in the afternoons."
The Little Regiment, and Other Episodes of the American Civil War Page 19
