第12章

The captain of the company, tucking his sword under his arm, produced a handkerchief and began to bind with it the lieutenant's wound.

And they disputed as to how the binding should be done.

The battle flag in the distance jerked about madly.It seemed to be struggling to free itself from an agony.The billowing smoke was filled with horizontal flashes.

Men running swiftly emerged from it.They grew in numbers until it was seen that the whole command was fleeing.The flag suddenly sank down as if dying.Its motion as it fell was a gesture of despair.

Wild yells came from behind the walls of smoke.A sketch in gray and red dissolved into a moblike body of men who galloped like wild horses.

The veteran regiments on the right and left of the 304th immediately began to jeer.With the passionate song of the bullets and the banshee shrieks of shells were mingled loud catcalls and bits of facetious advice concerning places of safety.

But the new regiment was breathless with hor-ror."Gawd! Saunders's got crushed!" whis-pered the man at the youth's elbow.They shrank back and crouched as if compelled to await a flood.

The youth shot a swift glance along the blue ranks of the regiment.The profiles were motion-less, carven; and afterward he remembered that the color sergeant was standing with his legs apart, as if he expected to be pushed to the ground.

The following throng went whirling around the flank.Here and there were officers carried along on the stream like exasperated chips.They were striking about them with their swords and with their left fists, punching every head they could reach.They cursed like highway-men.

A mounted officer displayed the furious anger of a spoiled child.He raged with his head, his arms, and his legs.

Another, the commander of the brigade, was galloping about bawling.His hat was gone and his clothes were awry.He resembled a man who has come from bed to go to a fire.The hoofs of his horse often threatened the heads of the running men, but they scampered with sin-gular fortune.In this rush they were apparently all deaf and blind.They heeded not the largest and longest of the oaths that were thrown at them from all directions.

Frequently over this tumult could be heard the grim jokes of the critical veterans; but the retreating men apparently were not even con-scious of the presence of an audience.

The battle reflection that shone for an instant in the faces on the mad current made the youth feel that forceful hands from heaven would not have been able to have held him in place if he could have got intelligent control of his legs.

There was an appalling imprint upon these faces.The struggle in the smoke had pictured an exaggeration of itself on the bleached cheeks and in the eyes wild with one desire.

The sight of this stampede exerted a floodlike force that seemed able to drag sticks and stones and men from the ground.They of the reserves had to hold on.They grew pale and firm, and red and quaking.

The youth achieved one little thought in the midst of this chaos.The composite monster which had caused the other troops to flee had not then appeared.He resolved to get a view of it, and then, he thought he might very likely run better than the best of them.