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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of From School to Battle-field, by Charles King
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: From School to Battle-field
+       A Story of the War Days
+
+Author: Charles King
+
+Illustrator: Violet Oakley
+             Charles H. Stephens
+
+Release Date: October 9, 2011 [EBook #37672]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM SCHOOL TO BATTLE-FIELD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    FROM SCHOOL TO BATTLE-FIELD
+
+
+    [Illustration: "Come down aff the top o' dthat harrse!"]
+
+
+    FROM SCHOOL TO BATTLE-FIELD
+
+    A STORY OF THE WAR DAYS
+
+    BY CAPTAIN CHARLES KING, U.S.A. AUTHOR OF "TROOPER ROSS," ETC.
+
+
+    ILLUSTRATED BY VIOLET OAKLEY AND CHARLES H. STEPHENS
+
+
+    PHILADELPHIA J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 1899
+
+
+    COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+    ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+    "COME DOWN AFF THE TOP O' DTHAT HARRSE!"
+
+    ALMOST SENSELESS, TILL SHORTY STROVE TO LIFT HIS BLEEDING HEAD UPON
+      HIS KNEE
+
+    "I COULDN'T STAND IT. I HAD TO GO"
+
+    SHE WAS PERMITTED TO READ AND TO WEEP OVER SNIPE'S PATHETIC LETTER
+
+    FIRST CAPTURE OF THE ADVANCING ARMS OF THE UNION
+
+    "WHERE'D YOU GET THAT WATCH?"
+
+
+
+
+FROM SCHOOL TO BATTLE-FIELD.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"If there's anything I hate more than a rainy Saturday, call me a
+tadpole!" said the taller of two boys who, with their chins on their
+arms and their arms on the top of the window-sash, were gazing gloomily
+out over a dripping world. It was the second day of an east wind, and
+every boy on Manhattan Island knows what an east wind brings to New York
+City, or used to in days before the war, and this was one of them.
+
+"And our nine could have lammed that Murray Hill crowd a dozen to
+nothing!" moaned the shorter, with disgust in every tone. "Next Saturday
+the 'Actives' have that ground, and there'll be no decent place to
+play--unless we can trap them over to Hoboken. What shall we do,
+anyhow?"
+
+The taller boy, a curly-headed, dark-eyed fellow of sixteen, whose long
+legs had led to his school name of Snipe, turned from the contemplation
+of an endless vista of roofs, chimneys, skylights, clothes-lines, all
+swimming in an atmosphere of mist, smoke, and rain, and glanced back at
+the book-laden table.
+
+"There's that Virgil," he began, tentatively.
+
+"Oh, Virgil be blowed!" broke in the other on the instant. "It's bad
+enough to have to work week-days. I mean what can we do for--fun?" and
+the blue eyes of the youngster looked up into the brown of his taller
+chum.
+
+"That's all very well for you, Shorty," said Snipe. "Latin comes easy to
+you, but it don't to me. You've got a sure thing on exam., I haven't,
+and the pater's been rowing me every week over those blasted reports."
+
+"Well-l, I'm as bad off in algebra or Greek, for that matter. 'Pop' told
+me last week I ought to be ashamed of myself," was the junior's answer.
+
+And, lest it be supposed that by "Pop" he referred to the author of his
+being, and thereby deserves the disapproval of every right-minded reader
+at the start, let it be explained here and now that "Pop" was the
+head--the "rector"--of a school famous in the ante-bellum days of
+Gotham; famous indeed as was its famous head, and though they called him
+nicknames, the boys worshipped him. Older boys, passed on into the cap
+and gown of Columbia (items of scholastic attire sported only, however,
+at examinations and the semi-annual speech-making), referred to the
+revered professor of the Greek language and literature as "Bull," and
+were no less fond of him, nor did they hold him less in reverence. Where
+are they now, I wonder?--those numerous works bound in calf, embellished
+on the back with red leather bands on which were stamped in gold ----'s
+Virgil, ----'s Horace, ----'s Sallust, ----'s Homer? Book after book had
+he, grammars of both tongues, prosodies likewise, Roman and Greek
+antiquities, to say nothing of the huge classical dictionary. One could
+cover a long shelf in one's student library without drawing upon the
+works of any other authority, and here in this dark little room, on the
+topmost floor of a brownstone house in Fourteenth Street, a school-boy
+table was laden at its back with at least eight of Pop's ponderous tomes
+to the exclusion of other classics.
+
+But on the shelf above were books by no means so scholarly and far more
+worn. There they stood in goodly array, Mayne Reid's "Boy Hunters,"
+"Scalp Hunters," "The Desert Home," "The White Chief," flanked by a
+dusty "Sanford and Merton" that appeared to hold aloof from its
+associates. There, dingy with wear though far newer, was Thomas Hughes's
+inimitable "Tom Brown's School-Days at Rugby." There was what was then
+his latest, "The Scouring of the White Horse," which, somehow, retained
+the freshness of the shop. There were a few volumes of Dickens, and
+Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales. There on the wall were some vivid battle
+pictures, cut from the _London Illustrated News_,--the Scots Grays in
+the melee with the Russian cavalry at Balaklava; the Guards, in their
+tall bearskins and spike-tail coats, breasting the slopes of the Alma.
+There hung a battered set of boxing-gloves, and on the hooks above them
+a little brown rifle, muzzle-loading, of course. The white-covered bed
+stood against the wall on the east side of the twelve-by-eight
+apartment, its head to the north. At its foot were some objects at which
+school-boys of to-day would stare in wonderment; a pair of heavy boots
+stood on the floor, with a pair of trousers so adjusted to them that, in
+putting on the boots, one was already half-way into the trousers, and
+had only to pull them up and tightly belt them at the waist. On the post
+hung a red flannel shirt, with a black silk neckerchief sewed to the
+back of the broad rolling collar. On top of the post was the most
+curious object of all,--a ribbed helmet of glistening black leather,
+with a broad curving brim that opened out like a shovel at the back,
+while a stiff, heavy eagle's neck and head, projecting from the top,
+curved over them and held in its beak an emblazoned front of black
+patent leather that displayed in big figures of white the number 40, and
+in smaller letters, arching over the figures, the name, Lady Washington.
+It was the fire-cap of a famous engine company of the old New York
+volunteer department,--a curious thing, indeed, to be found in a
+school-boy's room.
+
+The desk, littered with its books and papers, stood in the corner
+between the window and the east wall. Along the west wall was a
+curtained clothes-press. Then came the marble-topped washstand, into
+which the water would flow only at night, when the demand for Gotham's
+supply of Croton measurably subsided. Beyond that was the door leading
+to the open passage toward the stairway to the lower floors. In the
+corner of the room were the school-boy paraphernalia of the day,--a
+cricket bat, very much battered, two base-ball bats that the boys of
+this generation would doubtless scan suspiciously, "heft" cautiously,
+then discard disdainfully, for they were of light willow and bigger at
+the bulge by full an inch than the present regulation. Beneath them in
+the corner lay the ball of the year 1860, very like the article now in
+use, but then referred to as a "ten shilling," and invariably made at an
+old shoe-shop at the foot of Second Avenue, whose owner, a veteran
+cobbler, had wisely quit half-soling and heeling for a sixpence and was
+coining dollars at the newly discovered trade. All the leading clubs
+were then his patrons,--the Atlantics, the Eckfords, the Mutuals, the
+Stars, even the Unions of Morrisania. All the leading junior clubs swore
+by him and would use no ball but his,--the champion Actives, the Alerts,
+the Uncas. (A "shanghai club" the boys declared the last named to be
+when it first appeared at Hamilton Square in its natty uniform of
+snow-white flannel shirts and sky-blue trousers.) Base ball was in its
+infancy, perhaps, but what a lusty infant and how pervading! Beyond that
+corner and hanging midway on the northward wall was a portentous object,
+an old-fashioned maple shell snare-drum, with white buff leather sling
+and two pairs of ebony sticks, their polished heads and handles
+proclaiming constant use, and the marble surface of the washstand top,
+both sides, gave proof that when practice on the sheepskin batter head
+was tabooed by the household and the neighborhood, the inoffensive stone
+received the storm of "drags," and "flams," and "rolls." Lifting the
+curtain that overhung the boyish outfit of clothing, there stood
+revealed still further evidence of the martial tastes of the occupant,
+for the first items in sight were a natty scarlet shell-jacket, a pair
+of trim blue trousers, with broad stripe of buff, and a jaunty little
+forage-cap, with regimental wreath and number. Underneath the curtain,
+but readily hauled into view, were found screwed and bolted to heavy
+blocks of wood two strange-looking miniature cannon, made, as one could
+soon determine, by sawing off a brace of old-fashioned army muskets
+about a foot from the breech. Two powder-flasks and a shot-bag hung on
+pegs at the side of the curtained clothes-press. A little mirror was
+clamped to the wall above the washstand. Some old fencing foils and a
+weather-beaten umbrella stood against the desk. An open paint-box, much
+besmeared, lay among the books. Some other pamphlets and magazines were
+stacked up on the top of the clothes-press. Two or three colored prints,
+one of Columbian Engine, No. 14, a very handsome Philadelphia
+"double-decker." Another of Ringgold Hose, No. 7, a really beautiful
+four-wheeler of the old, old type, with chocolate-colored running gear
+and a dazzling plate-glass reel, completed the ornamentation of this
+school-boy den. There was no room for a lounge,--there was room only for
+two chairs; but that diminutive apartment was one of the most popular
+places of resort Pop's boys seemed to know, and thereby it became the
+hot-bed of more mischief, the birthplace of more side-splitting school
+pranks than even the staid denizens of that most respectable brownstone
+front ever dreamed of, whatever may have been the convictions of the
+neighborhood, for Pop's boys, be it known, had no dormitory or
+school-house in common. No such luck! They lived all over Manhattan
+Island, all over Kings, Queens, and Westchester counties. They came from
+the wilds of Hoboken and the heights of Bergen. They dwelt in massive
+brownstone fronts on Fifth Avenue and in modest wooden, one-story
+cottages at Fort Washington. They wore "swell" garments in some cases
+and shabby in others. They were sons of statesmen, capitalists, lawyers,
+doctors, and small shopkeepers. They were rich and they were poor; they
+were high and they were low, tall and short, skinny and stout, but they
+were all pitched, neck and crop, into Pop's hopper, treated share and
+share alike, and ground and polished and prodded or praised, and a more
+stand-on-your-own-bottom lot of young vessels ("vessels of wrath," said
+the congregation of a neighboring tabernacle) never had poured into them
+impartially the treasures of the spring of knowledge. They were of four
+classes, known as the first, second, third, and fourth Latin,
+corresponding to the four classes of Columbia and other colleges, and to
+be a first Latin boy at Pop's was second only to being a senior at Yale
+or Columbia. As a rule the youngsters "started fair" together at the
+bottom, and knew each other to the backbone by the time they reached the
+top. Few new boys came in except each September with the fourth Latin.
+Pop had his own way of teaching, and the boy that didn't know his
+methods and had not mastered his "copious notes" might know anybody
+else's Caesar, Sallust, or Cicero by rote, but he couldn't know Latin.
+Pop had a pronunciation of the Roman tongue that only a Pop's bred boy
+could thoroughly appreciate. Lads who came, as come in some rare cases
+they did, from Eton or Harrow, from the Latin schools of Boston or the
+manifold academies of the East, read as they had been taught to read,
+and were rewarded with a fine sarcasm and the information that they had
+much to unlearn. Pop's school was encompassed roundabout by many another
+school, whose pupils took their airing under ushers' eyes, to the
+howling disdain of Pop's unhampered pupils, who lined the opposite curb
+and dealt loudly in satirical comment. There was war to the knife
+between Pop's boys and Charlier's around the corner, to the end that the
+hours of recess had to be changed or both schools, said the police,
+would be forbidden the use of Madison Square. They had many faults, had
+Pop's boys, though not all the neighborhood ascribed to them, and they
+had at least one virtue,--they pulled well together. By the time it got
+to the top of the school each class was like a band of brothers, and
+never was there a class of which this could be more confidently asserted
+than the array of some twenty-seven youngsters, of whom Snipe and his
+smaller chum, Shorty, were prominent members, in the year of our Lord
+eighteen hundred and sixty.
+
+Yet, they had their black sheep, as is to be told, and their
+scapegraces, as will not need to be told, and months of the oddest,
+maddest, merriest school life in the midst of the most vivid excitement
+the great city ever knew, and on the two lads wailing there at the attic
+window because their fates had balked the longed-for game at Hamilton
+Square, there were dawning days that, rain or shine, would call them
+shelterless into constant active, hazardous life, and that, in one at
+least, would try and prove and temper a brave, impatient spirit,--that
+should be indeed the very turning-point of his career.
+
+Patter, patter, patter! drip, drip, drip! the rain came pelting in
+steady shower. The gusty wind blew the chimney smoke down into the
+hollow of the long quadrilateral of red brick house backs. Three, four,
+and five stories high, they hemmed in, without a break, a "plant" of
+rectangular back-yards, each with its flag-stone walk, each with its
+square patch of turf, each with its flower-beds at the foot of the high,
+spike-topped boundary fence, few with visible shrubs, fewer still
+diversified by grape arbors, most of them criss-crossed with
+clothes-lines, several ornamented with whirligigs, all on this moist
+November afternoon wringing wet from the steady downpour that came on
+with the dawn and broke the boys' hearts, for this was to have been the
+match day between the Uncas and the Murray Hills, and Pop's school was
+backing the Indians to a man. One more week and winter might be upon
+them and the ball season at an end. Verily, it was indeed too bad!
+
+With a yawn of disgust, the shorter boy at the open-topped window threw
+up his hands and whirled about. There on the bed lay the precious
+base-ball uniform in which he was wont to figure as shortstop. There,
+too, lay Snipe's, longer in the legs by nearly a foot. "There's nothing
+in-doors but books, Snipy. There's only one thing to tempt a fellow out
+in the wet,--a fire, and small chance of that on such a day. We might
+take the guns up on the roof and shoot a few skylights or something----"
+
+"Shut up!" said Snipe, at this juncture, suddenly, impetuously throwing
+up his hand. "Twenty-third Street!"
+
+Shorty sprang to the window and levelled an old opera-glass at the
+summit of an odd white tower that loomed, dim and ghost-like, through
+the mist above the housetops quarter of a mile away. Both boys' eyes
+were kindling, their lips parting in excitement. Both were on tiptoe.
+
+"Right! Down comes the lever!" was the next announcement. "Upper Fifth,
+I'll bet a bat! Listen!"
+
+Suddenly there pealed on the heavy air, solemn and slow, the deep,
+mellow tones of a great bell. Even as he counted the strokes each boy
+reached for his cap. One--two--three--four!
+
+"Fourth!" cried Shorty. "Come on!" And, light as kittens, away scurried
+the two, skimming down three flights of stairs, nearly capsizing a
+sedate old butler, snatching their top-coats in the hall, letting
+themselves out with a bang, leaping down the broad flight of brownstone
+steps to the broader walk below, then spurting away for Union Square,
+fast as light-heeled, light-hearted lads could run.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+A curious thing to look back upon is the old volunteer fire department
+of New York as it was forty years ago. No horses, no fire-boats, few
+steamers, no telegraph alarm-boxes, only a great array of practically
+go-as-you-please companies, averaging forty or fifty men apiece,
+scattered all over the inhabited parts of the island from Harlem to the
+Battery. Sixty of these organizations, there or thereabouts, were hose
+companies, each manning a light, high-wheeled, fancifully painted
+carriage with its hose-reel perched gracefully above the running-gear,
+decked out with fancy lamps and jangling bells,--a carriage so light
+that a boy could start it on the level and a dozen athletic men could
+make it fairly spin over the paved streets. Then there were fifty engine
+companies, all but two or three specially favored bands "tooling" hand
+machines, some of the old "double-deck" Philadelphia pattern, some with
+long side levers, "brakes" they called them; others still with strange,
+uncouth shapes, built by some local expert with the idea of
+out-squirting all competitors. Down in Centre Street was the heavy
+apparatus of the Exempt Company, only called upon in case of fires of
+unusual magnitude. Near by, too, was stored a brace of what were then
+considered powerful steamers, brought out only on such occasions; but
+two companies that wielded strong political influence proudly drew at
+the end of their ropes light-running and handsome steam fireengines, and
+these two companies, Americus 6,--"Big Six" as they called her,--and her
+bitter rivals of Manhattan 8, were the envied of all the department. Add
+to these some nineteen hook and ladder companies that ran long, light,
+prettily ornamented trucks, and you have the New York fire department as
+it was just before the war. Famous men were its chiefs in those days,
+and the names of Harry Howard and John Decker, of Carson and Cregier,
+were household words among the boys at Pop's, most of whom were strong
+partisans of some company on whose speed and prowess they pinned their
+faith. Strange, indeed, to-day seems the system by which fire alarms
+were communicated. There were no electric bells, no gongs, no telephones
+in the various engine-houses, which were scattered all over the town,
+generally in groups of two, an engine and a hose company being "located"
+side by side, though a large number occupied single houses. On the roof
+of the old post-office at Nassau Street, in a huge frame-work at the
+rear of the City Hall, and in tall observation-towers of iron tubing or
+wooden frame, placed at convenient points about the city, were hung big,
+heavy, deep-toned bells that struck the hour at noon and nine at night,
+but otherwise were used exclusively for the purpose of giving alarms of
+fire. The city was divided into eight districts, and the sounding of the
+tower bells of any number from one to eight, inclusive, meant that a
+fire had been discovered within the limits of that district, and all
+companies designated for service therein must hunt it up and put it out.
+The seventh and eighth districts divided the lower part of the city, a
+little below Canal Street, evenly between them. Then, as the city
+broadened there, the great, far-spreading space between the East and
+North Rivers, south of Twenty-second Street, was parcelled off into the
+third, fourth, fifth, and sixth districts, beginning from the west.
+These were quite narrow at the south, but flared out north and eastward.
+Above them, on the east and west sides of the city respectively, lay the
+first and second districts, the former extending almost to Harlem, which
+had on Mount Morris its own bell-tower and at its foot a little
+department of its own. Night and day a single watcher was perched in the
+glass-enclosed lookout at the summit of each lofty tower, his sole
+communication with the world below being a speaking-tube to the
+engine-house at the base and a single wire that connected his "circuit"
+with the main office at the City Hall, a circuit so limited in its
+possibilities that it could only administer a single tap at a time upon
+the tiny gong-bell over the watcher's desk, and finally the big, booming
+bell that, hanging midway down in the lofty structure, was yet so high
+above the neighboring roofs and walls that its sound bellowed forth in
+unimpeded volume. It was struck by a massive swinging hammer, worked by
+a long steel lever aloft in the watch-tower, the entire apparatus being
+the design, as were some of the strange-looking engines, of ex-Chief
+Carson, and one of the greatest treats that Pop's boys could possibly
+have was to be piloted of a wintry Saturday afternoon or summer evening,
+by one of their number who had the _open sesame_, up, up the winding
+stairway, up past the huge, silent monster that hung midway. (You may
+venture to bet they wasted no time there, but scurried past him, full
+tilt, lest an alarm should come at the instant and he should suddenly
+boom forth and stun them with his clamor.) Once well past him, they
+breathed freer, if harder, for the climb was long, and at last, tapping
+on a little trap-door, were admitted to the sanctum at the summit, and
+could gaze in delight and wonderment about them and over the busy,
+bustling world far, far beneath. Once well above the low ground of Canal
+Street, the city rose, and from the Hudson to the East River, along
+about the line of Spring Street, the ground was high, and here was
+established the inner row of Gotham's picket guards against fire: three
+tall towers, one away over at Essex Market, on the far east side,
+guarding the sixth district; one on Marion Street, guarding the lower
+fourth and fifth; one over at McDougal Street, guarding the lower third.
+The next post to the northward was at Jefferson Market, on Sixth Avenue,
+a tall white wooden shaft that seemed to pierce the skies, so low were
+all the surrounding buildings, and from his eerie at its summit
+Jefferson's ringer watched over the upper third and fourth districts.
+The next tower was Twenty-third Street, near First Avenue, an open
+affair of iron, like that at McDougal, and here the guardian looked out
+over all the lower first and upper fifth districts, as well as having an
+eye on the northeastern part of the fourth. Then came Thirty-second
+Street, far over near Ninth Avenue, another open cage; and in the cozy,
+stove-warmed roost at the top of each, snugly closed against wind and
+weather, day and night, as has been said, and only one man at a time,
+the ringer kept his ceaseless vigil. It was his duty to be ever on the
+alert, ever moving about and spying over the city. If an unusual smoke
+or blaze manifested itself anywhere, he would at once unsling his
+spy-glass and examine it. If it lay long blocks or miles away and closer
+to some other tower, the unwritten law or etiquette of the craft
+demanded that he should touch the key of his telegraph. This instantly
+sounded the little bell in the other towers on his circuit, and called
+upon his fellows to look about them. At no time could he sit and read.
+He must pace about the narrow confines of his rounded den, or on the
+encircling gallery outside, and watch, watch, watch. Whenever he
+discovered a fire, the first thing was to let down his lever and strike
+one round of the district in which it lay,--fast if the fire was near,
+slow if at a distance. This was all the neighboring companies had to
+judge by, as the first arrivals at the engine-house, or the loungers
+generally sitting about the stove back of the apparatus, or the bunkers
+who slept there at night, sprang for their fire-caps, raced for the
+trumpet that stood on the floor at the end of the tongue, threw open
+their doors, manned the drag-rope, and "rolled" for the street. No
+company could speed far on its route before meeting some runner or
+partisan who could tell the exact or approximate location of the fire.
+The first round from the tower would start every machine in its
+neighborhood. Then the ringer would spring to his telegraph and rapidly
+signal to the City Hall two rounds of the district, then add the number
+of his tower. Then back he would go to his lever and bang another round.
+If the fire was trivial four rounds would suffice; if a great
+conflagration ensued he would keep on ringing for half an hour, and if
+it proved so great that the chief engineer deemed it necessary to call
+out his entire force, word would be sent to the nearest tower, and a
+general alarm would result,--a continuous tolling until signalled from
+the City Hall to cease. Well did Pop's boys remember the one general
+alarm of 1859, when the magnificent Crystal Palace at Sixth Avenue and
+Forty-second Street went up in smoke; and all in half an hour! And
+thrilling and interesting it was to the favored few of their number
+permitted sometimes to stand watch of an evening with the ringer, and to
+peer down on the gaslights of the bustling streets and over dim roofs
+and spires and into many an open window long blocks away! It was joy to
+be allowed to man the lever with the silent, mysterious hermit of the
+tower and help him bang the big bell when the last click of the
+telegraph from the City Hall announced that the second-hand of the
+regulator at the main office had just reached the mark at nine o'clock.
+It was simply thrilling to sit and watch the keen-eyed sentinel as he
+suddenly and intently scanned a growing light about some distant dormer
+window, reached for his glass, peered through it one instant, then
+clapped it into its frame, sprang for the lever, and in another moment
+three or four or five deep, clanging notes boomed out on the night air
+from below. It was wild delight to lean from the gallery without and
+watch the rush and excitement in the streets,--to hear the jangle of the
+bells of the white hose carriage as "she" shot suddenly into view and,
+with a dozen active dots on the drag-rope, went spinning down the
+street, closely followed by her next-door neighbor, the engine, with a
+rapidly growing crew. It was keen excitement to watch the bursting of
+the blaze, the roll of the smoke from the upper windows, to see it wax
+and spread and light up the neighboring roofs and chimneys with its
+glare, to mark from on high the swiftly gathering throngs on the broad
+avenue, and under the gaslight to see company after company come
+trotting out from the side streets, curving round into the car-tracks,
+and the moment the broad tires of their engine, truck, or carriage
+struck the flat of the rails, up would rise a yell from every throat and
+away they would go at racing speed. It was thrilling, indeed, to see two
+rival companies reach the avenue at the same point and turn at once into
+the tracks. Then to the stirring peal of the alarm the fiercely
+contending bands would seem fairly to spurn the stones beneath their
+flying feet, and carts, carriages, "busses," everything except the
+railway-cars themselves, would clear the track for the rival racers, and
+the air would resound with their rallying-cries. Time and again, it must
+be owned, so fierce was the strain for supremacy, that furious rows
+broke forth between the contestants, and that between many companies
+there were for months and years bitter feuds that often led to war to
+the knife, and a fire was sometimes left to look out for itself while
+the firemen settled their quarrel with fists, stones, and "spanners." As
+a rule, though, there were so many companies at each fire that there
+were more than enough to fight the flames, for every company had to run
+to two districts as well as cover its own neighborhood. Rowdyism was
+rampant in some of the organizations, but then a benignant "Tammany"
+guarded the interests of a force so strong in numbers, so potent a
+factor in politics, and only when a company had become repeatedly and
+notoriously negligent of its proper duties in order to indulge its love
+for fight was it actually disbanded. Compared with the system of to-day
+it was almost grotesque; but in the years when Pop's boys were in their
+glory the old volunteer fire department was on its last legs, yet was as
+ignorant of its coming dissolution as of the approach of the great war
+that should summon so many of its members to meet a foe far harder to
+down than the hottest fire they had ever tackled. They were still
+monarchs of all they surveyed, those red-shirted, big-hearted roughs,
+and many a company had a jolly word of welcome for Pop's boys, who more
+than once had given some favorite company first notice--"a still
+alarm"--of a blaze, and thereby enabled the "Zephyrs" of 61 Hose or the
+"Pacifics" of 28 Engine to be first at the fire, getting a "scoop" on
+their nearest neighbors of the "Lexington" or the "Metamoras," for every
+company besides its number had its name, and every company, high or low,
+its swarm of boy admirers, adherents, and followers, most of them, it
+must be admitted, street _gamins_.
+
+And all this explanation as our two youngsters are scooting through the
+dripping rain for Union Square.
+
+As they sped across Fifth Avenue a long white seam flashed into view
+just beyond the Washington statue, and went like a dim streak sailing
+away up Fourth Avenue.
+
+"There goes Twelve Truck!" panted Shorty, already half-winded in the
+fierce effort to keep up with Snipe's giant strides. "Seven Hose must be
+just ahead. Look out for Twenty-three now!"
+
+Yes, out from Broadway, as he spoke, a little swarm of men and boys on
+the drag-ropes, another company came, hauling a bulky little red
+hand-engine, and went tugging in chase of the lighter hook and ladder. A
+minute's swift run brought the youngsters to the open square, another
+around to the broad space in front of the Everett, and there the misty
+atmosphere grew heavy and thick, and the swarm of scurrying men and boys
+breathed harder as they plunged into a dense drift of smoke. Just as our
+youngsters noted that the crowds were running eastward through
+Nineteenth Street, the old rallying cry of another company was heard,
+and a light hose carriage came bounding across the car-tracks from the
+direction of Broadway. Snipe by this time was a dozen yards ahead, and
+could not hear or would not heed the half-choking, warning cry of
+puffing little Shorty.
+
+"Lay low, Snipe; that's the Metamora. Look out--look out for the----"
+
+Too late! Half a dozen young fellows were sprinting along beside their
+pet hose carriage. No more were needed on the ropes, and as Shorty
+rounded the corner into Nineteenth Street and saw the flames bursting
+from the roof of a stable close to Lexington Avenue, he saw, too, with
+bursting heart, three of those young flankers spring up on the sidewalk
+in chase of long-limbed Snipe, saw one of them overtake him, lay sudden
+hand on his shoulder on one side and hurl him violently to the left,
+just in time to be tripped over the tangling foot of another and tumbled
+headlong into the reeking gutter, there to lie, stunned and almost
+senseless, till Shorty, raging, yet breathless and helpless, strove to
+lift his bleeding head upon his knee.
+
+[Illustration: Almost senseless, till Shorty strove to lift his bleeding
+head upon his knee.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Bigger crowds ran to fires, big or little, in those days than now. The
+blaze which had well-nigh destroyed an old frame stable in Nineteenth
+Street that rainy Saturday afternoon before a single fire company
+reached the scene, and that drew to the spot in the course of half an
+hour at least twenty companies,--engine, hose, or hook and
+ladder,--would be handled now by one compact little battalion with
+one-tenth the loss, with no more than forty men, without an unnecessary
+sound, and in much less than half the time. Although aided by
+sympathizing hands, Shorty had barely time to get Snipe on his shaky
+legs and in the lee of a sheltering tree-box when another company came
+tearing around from upper Fourth Avenue,--their old friends of Zephyr
+Hose,--close followed by Engine 28, and Shorty lifted up his voice in a
+yodel that instantly brought two or three panting young fellows to his
+side,--big boys who had run with their pet company the half-mile from
+Twenty-eighth Street. Instant suspicion, mingled with wrath, gleamed in
+their eyes at sight of Snipe's pale face and bleeding temple. "Yes, the
+Hulker fellows!" sobbed Shorty, now half mad with indignation and
+excitement. "I saw just the two that did it. One of them belongs to the
+first nine of the Metamoras,--the juniors,--and had a row with Snipe the
+day of the match. Briggs was with them. Wait till we tend to Snipe, then
+we can fix him."
+
+The youngster's heart was beating hard and savagely, for the outrage was
+brutal. There had been angry words between the rival clubs, the Uncas
+and the Metamora, the day of their great game, and hosts of other
+juniors had gathered about the wrangling nines, not utterly displeased
+at the idea of a falling out between two of the strongest and, as
+juniors went in those days, "swellest" organizations on the list. Then,
+as luck would have it, several of the older boys of both clubs were
+devoted followers, even "runners," of two rival hose companies, the
+Uncas almost to a man pinning their fortunes on the white Zephyr, whose
+home was but three short blocks above Pop's school, and one of whose
+active members, the son of a Fifth Avenue millionaire, was the biggest
+and oldest--and stupidest--of Pop's pupils, though not in the classical
+department. The Metamoras, in like manner, swore by the swell hose
+company of that name, whose carriage was housed on Fifth Avenue itself,
+diagonally over across the way from the impressively dignified and
+aristocratic brownstone mansion of the Union Club. And what Pop's boys,
+the First Latin, at least, were well-nigh a unit in condemning was that
+just two of their own number, residents of that immediate neighborhood,
+were known to be in league with the Metamora crowd, even to the extent,
+it was whispered, of secretly associating with the Hulkers, and by the
+Hulkers was meant a little clique led by two brothers of that name, big,
+burly young fellows of nineteen and eighteen respectively, sons of a
+wealthy widow, who let them run the road to ruin and bountifully paid
+their way,--two young scapegraces who were not only vicious and
+well-nigh worthless themselves, but were leading astray half a score of
+others who were fit for better things. No wonder the hearts of the Uncas
+were hot against them.
+
+Into the area doorway of a neighboring dwelling, with faces of gloom,
+they had led their wounded comrade. Sympathizing, kind-hearted women
+bathed his forehead and smoothly bandaged it, even as the uproar without
+increased, and companies from far down-town kept pouring into the
+crowded street. By this time half a dozen streams were on the blaze and
+the black smoke had turned to white steam, but still they came, Gulick
+and Guardian, hose and engine, from under the Jefferson tower, and natty
+55 Hose,--the "Harry Howards,"--from away over near the Christopher
+ferry, and their swell rivals of 38, from Amity Street, close at the
+heels of Niagara 4, with her handsome Philadelphia double-deck engine,
+and "3 Truck," from Fireman's Hall, in Mercer Street, and another big
+double-decker, 11, from away down below the Metropolitan Hotel, raced
+every inch of the mile run up Broadway by her east side rival, Marion 9.
+Fancy the hundreds of shouting, struggling, excited men blocking
+Lexington Avenue and Eighteenth Street for two hundred yards in every
+direction from what we would call to-day a "two-hundred-dollar fire,"
+and you can form an idea of the waste of time, money, material, and
+energy, the access of uproar, confusion, and, ofttimes, rowdyism, that
+accompanied an alarm in the days before the war. Remember that all this,
+too, might result from the mere burning out of a chimney or the ignition
+of a curtain in a garret window, and you can readily see why tax-payers,
+thinking men, and insurance companies finally decided that the old
+volunteer department must be abolished.
+
+But until the war came on there was nothing half so full of excitement
+in the eyes of young New York, and Pop's boys, many of them at least,
+thought it the biggest kind of fun outside of school, where they had fun
+of their own such as few other boys saw the like of.
+
+It was inside the school, however, on the following Monday morning, that
+the young faces were grave and full of import, for Snipe was there,
+still bandaged and a trifle pale, and Shorty, scant of breath but full
+of vim and descriptives, and time and again had he to tell the story of
+the Hulkers' attack to classmates who listened with puckered brows and
+compressed lips, all the while keeping an eye on two black sheep, who
+followed with furtive glances Snipe and Shorty wherever they went; and
+one of these two was the Pariah of the school.
+
+The only son of a wealthy broker, Leonard Hoover at eighteen years of
+age had every advantage that the social position of his parents and a
+big allowance could give him, but he stood in Pop's school that saddest
+of sights,--a friendless boy. Always immaculately dressed and booted and
+gloved, he was a dullard in studies, a braggart in everything, and a
+success in nothing. For healthful sports and pastimes he had no use
+whatever. Books were his bane, and at eighteen he knew less of Latin
+than boys in the fourth form, but Pop had carried him along for years,
+dropping him back thrice, it was said in school traditions, until at
+last he had to float him with the First Latin, where he sat week after
+week at the foot of the class. It was said that between the revered
+rector of the school and the astute head of the firm of Hoover, Hope &
+Co. a strong friendship existed, but whatever regard "the Doctor"
+entertained for the father he denied the son. Long years of observation
+of the young fellow's character had convinced this shrewd student of boy
+nature that here was a case well-nigh without redeeming feature. Lazy,
+shifty, lying, malevolent, without a good word or kind thought for a
+human being, without a spark of gratitude to the father who had pulled
+him through one disgrace after another, and who strove to buy him a way
+through life, young Hoover was, if truth were confessed, about as
+abhorrent to the Doctor as he was obnoxious to the school. A plague, a
+bully, a tyrant to the little fellows in the lower classes, a cheat and
+coward among his fellows, filled with mean jealousy of the lads who year
+after year stepped over his head to the upper forms, stingy though his
+pockets were lined with silver, sneaking, for he was never known to do
+or say a straightforward thing in his life, it had come to pass by the
+time he spent his sixth year with Pop that Hoover was the school-boy
+synonym for everything disreputable or mean. And, as though the
+Providence that had endowed him through his father with everything that
+wealth and influence could command was yet determined to strike a
+balance somewhere, "Len" Hoover had been given a face almost as
+repellent as his nature. His little black eyes were glittering and
+beady, which was bad enough, but in addition were so sadly and
+singularly crossed that the effect was to distort their true dimensions
+and make the right optic appear larger and fuller than the left, which
+at times was almost lost sight of,--a strange defect that even Pop had
+had the weakness to satirize, and, well knowing that Hoover would never
+understand the meaning, had in a moment of unusual exasperation referred
+to him as "Cyclops," or Polyphemus, a name that would have held among
+the boys had it not been too classical and not sufficiently
+contemptuous. An ugly red birth-mark added to his facial deformity, but
+what more than anything else gave it its baleful expression was the
+sneer that never seemed to leave his mouth. The grin that sometimes,
+when tormenting a little boy, distended that feature could never by any
+possibility be mistaken for a smile. Hoover's white, slender, shapely
+hands were twitching and tremulous. New boys, who perhaps had to shake
+hands with him, said they were cold and clammy. He walked in his
+high-heeled boots in a rickety way that baffled imitation. He never ran.
+He never took part in any sport or game. He never subscribed a cent to
+any school enterprise,--base ball, cricket, excursion, or debate. He
+never even took part in the customary Christmas gifts to the teachers,
+for in the days of this class of Snipe's and Shorty's and others whose
+scholarly attainments should have won them first mention, there were
+some beloved men whom even mischief-loving lads delighted to remember in
+that way. One Christmas-tide Hoover had appeared just before the holiday
+break-up, followed by a servant in dark livery, a thing seldom seen
+before the war, and that servant solemnly bore half a dozen packages of
+which Hoover relieved him one at a time, and personally took to the desk
+of the master in each one of the five rooms, left it there without a
+word of explanation, but with an indescribable grin, bade the servant
+hand the sixth to the open-mouthed janitor, and disappeared. A
+perplexed lot were Pop's several assistants when school closed that
+afternoon. John, the janitor aforesaid, declared they held an informal
+caucus in the senior master's room (Othello was the pet name borne at
+the time by this gifted teacher and later distinguished divine), and
+that three of the number, who had smilingly and gracefully thanked the
+boys for the hearty little tribute of remembrance and good will with
+which the spokesman of the class had wished each master a Merry
+Christmas, declared they could accept no individual gift from any pupil,
+much less Hoover, and that he, John, believed the packages had been
+returned unopened.
+
+And this was the state of feeling at the old school towards its oldest
+scholar, in point of years spent beneath its roof, on the bleak November
+morning following Snipe's and Shorty's disastrous run to the fire, when
+at twelve o'clock the First Latin came tumbling down-stairs for recess.
+Ordinarily they went with a rush, bounding and jostling and playing all
+manner of pranks on each other and making no end of noise, then racing
+for doughnuts at Duncan's, two blocks away. But this time there was
+gravity and deliberation, an ominous silence that was sufficient in
+itself to tell the head-master, even before he noted the fact that
+Hoover was lingering in the school-room instead of sneaking off _solus_
+for a smoke at a neighboring stable, that something of an unusual nature
+was in the wind.
+
+"Why don't you go out to recess, Hoover?" said he, shortly. "If any lad
+needs fresh air, it's you."
+
+No answer for a moment. Hoover stood shuffling uneasily at the long
+window looking out on Fourth Avenue, every now and then peering up and
+down the street.
+
+Impatiently the master repeated his question, and then, sullen and
+scowling, Hoover answered,--
+
+"I can have trouble enough--here."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Othello.
+
+"They're layin' for me,--at least Snipe is."
+
+"By Snipe you mean Lawton, I suppose. What's the trouble between you?"
+and the master sat grimly eying the ill-favored fellow.
+
+"It's not a thing--I want to speak of," was the answer. "He knows that I
+know things that he can't afford to have get out,--that's all." Then,
+turning suddenly, "Mr. Halsey," said he, "there's things going on in
+this school the Doctor ought to know. I can't tell him or tell you, but
+you--you ask John where Joy's watch went and how it got there."
+
+The master started, and his dark face grew darker still. That business
+of Joy's watch had been the scandal of the school all October. Joy was
+one of the leaders of the First Latin, a member of one of the oldest
+families of Gotham, and this watch was a beautiful and costly thing that
+had been given him on his birthday the year before. One hot Friday noon
+when the school went out to recess, Joy came running back up the stairs
+from the street below and began searching eagerly about the bookcases at
+the back of the long school-room. A pale-faced junior master sat mopping
+the sweat from his forehead, for the First Latin had executed its famous
+charge but two minutes before, and he had striven in vain to quell the
+tumult.
+
+"What's the matter, Joy?" he asked. "I _beg_ pardon. _Mr._ Joy, I should
+say. I wonder that I am so forgetful as to speak to a young gentleman in
+the First Latin as I would to boys in the other forms in the school."
+
+At other times when the weakling who had so spoken gave voice to this
+sentiment it was the conventional thing for the First Latin to gaze
+stolidly at him and, by way of acknowledgment of the sentiment, to utter
+a low, moaning sound, like that of a beast in pain, gradually rising to
+a dull roar, then dying away to a murmur again, accentuated occasionally
+here and there by deep gutturals, "Hoi! hoi! hoi!" and in this
+inarticulate chorus was Joy ever the fugleman. But now, with troubled
+eyes, he stared at the master.
+
+"My watch is gone, sir!"
+
+"Gone, Mr. Joy? You terrify me!" said Mr. Meeker, whose habit it was to
+use exaggerated speech. "When--and how?"
+
+"While we were--having that scrimmage just now," answered Joy, searching
+about the floor and the benches. "I had it--looked at it--not two
+minutes before the bell struck. You may remember, sir, you bade me put
+it up."
+
+"I do remember. And when did you first miss it?"
+
+"Before we got across Twenty-fifth Street, sir."
+
+By this time, with sympathetic faces, back came Carey and Doremus and
+Bertram and others of the First Latin, and John, the janitor, stood at
+the door and looked on with puzzled eyes. It was not good for him that
+valuables should be lost at any time about the school. All four young
+fellows searched, but there was no sign. From that day to this Joy had
+seen no more of his beautiful watch. Detectives had sought in vain.
+Pawn-shops were ransacked. The Doctor had offered reward and Mr. Meeker,
+the master, his resignation, but neither was accepted.
+
+And now Hoover, the uncanny, had declared he had information. It was
+still over an hour before the Doctor could be expected down from his
+morning's work at Columbia. The head-master felt his fingers tingling
+and his pulses quicken. He himself had had a theory--a most unpleasant
+one--with regard to the disappearance of that precious watch. He knew
+his face was paling as he rose and backed the downcast, slant-eyed youth
+against the window-casing.
+
+"Hoover," said he, "I've known you seven years, and will have no
+dodging. Tell me what you know."
+
+"I--I--don't _know_ anything, sir," was the answer, "but you ask John.
+He does."
+
+"Stay where you are!" cried the master, as he stepped to his desk and
+banged the gong-bell that stood thereon. A lumbering tread was heard on
+the stairway, and a red-faced, shock-headed young man came clumsily into
+the room. Mr. Halsey collared him without ado and shoved him up
+alongside Hoover. He had scant reverence for family rank and name, had
+Halsey. In his eyes hulking John and sullen Hoover were about on a par,
+with any appreciable odds in favor of the janitor.
+
+"Hoover tells me you know where Joy's watch went and who took it. Out
+with the story!" demanded he.
+
+"I d-don't," mumbled John, in alarm and distress. "I--I only said
+that--there was more'n one could tell where it went." And then, to Mr.
+Halsey's amaze and disgust, the janitor fairly burst into tears. For two
+or three minutes his uncouth shape was shaken by sobs of unmistakable
+distress. Halsey vainly tried to check him, and angrily demanded
+explanation of this womanish conduct. At last John seemed about to
+speak, but at that moment Hoover, with shaking hand, grabbed the
+master's arm and muttered, "Mr. Halsey,--not now!"
+
+Following the frightened glance of those shifting eyes, Halsey whirled
+and looked towards the stairs. Then, with almost indignant question
+quivering on his lips, turned angrily on the pair. With a queer
+expression on his white and bandaged face, Snipe Lawton stood gazing at
+them from the doorway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+That famous charge of the First Latin is something that must be
+explained before this school story can go much further. To begin with,
+one has to understand the "lay of the land," or rather the plan of the
+school-room. Almost every boy knows how these buildings facing on a
+broad business thoroughfare are arranged:--four or five stories high,
+thirty or forty or fifty feet front, according to the size of the lot,
+perhaps one hundred to two hundred deep, with the rooms from basement to
+attic all about of a size unless partitioned off on different lines. In
+the days whereof we write Pop had his famous school in the second and
+third floors of one of these stereotyped blocks. Two-thirds of the
+second floor front was given up to one big room. A high wooden
+partition, glazed at the top and pierced with two doors, divided this,
+the main school-room, from two smaller ones where the Third and Fourth
+Latin wrestled with their verbs and declensions and gazed out through
+the long rear windows over a block of back-yards and fences. Aloft on
+the third floor were the rooms of the masters of the junior forms in
+English, mathematics, writing, etc. But it is with the second, the main
+floor and the main room on that floor, that we have to do. This was the
+home of the First Latin. It was bare as any school-room seen abroad,
+very nearly. Its furniture was inexpensive, but sufficient. A big stove
+stood in the centre of the long apartment, and some glazed bookcases
+between the west windows and against the south wall at the west end. A
+closet, sacred to Pop, was built against the north wall west of the
+stairway, which was shut off by a high wooden partition, reaching to the
+ceiling. A huge coat-rack stood in the southeast corner. A big open
+bookcase, divided off into foot square boxes for each boy's books,
+occupied the northeast corner, with its back against the northward wall.
+Six or seven benches abutting nearly end to end were strung along the
+south side, extending from the west windows almost to the coat-rack, the
+farthermost bench being at an obtuse angle. The bookbox, doors, and
+partitions were painted a cheerful lead color, the benches a deep dark
+green. So much for the accommodation of the lads. Now for their masters.
+On a square wooden dais, back to the light, was perched the stained pine
+desk at which from one-thirty to three each afternoon sat glorified Pop.
+Boy nor man ventured to assume that seat at other time, save when that
+front, like Jove, gleamed above the desk to threaten and command, and
+the massive proportions, clad in glossy broadcloth of scholarly black,
+settled into the capacious depths of that wicker-bottomed chair. In
+front of the desk, six feet away, the low stove, so often seasoned with
+Cayenne pepper, warmed the apartment, but obstructed not his view. At an
+equal distance beyond the stove was the table at which from nine A.M. to
+three P.M. sat the master in charge of the room, and thereby hung many
+and many a tale. It was a great big, flat-topped table, covered with
+shiny black oilcloth, slightly padded, and was so hollowed out on the
+master's side that it encompassed him round about like some modern boom
+defence against torpedo attack, and many a time that defence was needed.
+From the instant of the Doctor's ponderous appearance at the door law
+and disciplined order prevailed within this scholastic sanctuary, but of
+all the bear-gardens ever celebrated in profane history it was the worst
+during the one hour in which, each day from eleven to twelve, Mr. Meeker
+imparted to the First Latin his knowledge of the higher mathematics and
+endeavored to ascertain what, if any, portion thereof lodged long enough
+to make even a passing impression on the minds of that graceless
+assembly. There were other hours during which the spirit of mischief had
+its sway. There were other masters who found that First Latin an
+assemblage of youths who made them wonder why the Doctor had, after
+long, long years of observance, finally banished forever the system of
+punishment which was of the breech--the _vis a tergo_ order, that was
+the mainstay of grammar-school discipline in Columbia's proud past; but
+it was left to Mr. Meeker to enjoy as did no other man the full
+development of a capacity for devilment, a rapacity for mischief never
+equalled in the annals of the school.
+
+Whenever the class was formed for recitation it took seats on those
+northward-facing benches, the head of the class in a chair, with his
+back to the avenue window, close by the westernmost bench. The others of
+the "Sacred Band," as that guileful First Latin had once been derisively
+named, strung out in the order of their class rank along the benches,
+with Hoover, nine times out of ten, alone at the bottom. The system of
+recitation was peculiar to the school, and proved that the "copious
+notes," so often scornfully, yet enviously, referred to by outsiders,
+were only blessings in disguise. It might be that Virgil was the subject
+of the hour, the lesson say some fifty lines in the third book, and in
+this event Beach, not Meeker, was in the chair, a man of firmer mould,
+yet not invulnerable. One after another, haphazard, the youngsters were
+called upon to read, scan, translate, and at the very first slip in
+quantity, error in scanning, mistake of a word in translation, the
+master would cry "Next," and the first boy below who could point out the
+error and indicate the correction stepped up and took his place above
+the fellow at fault. A perfect recitation was a rarity except among the
+keen leaders at the head, for no error, big or little, was ever let
+pass. It was no easy thing for the average boy to read three lines of
+the resounding dactylic hexameters of "P. Virgilius Maro" according to
+the Columbia system of the day without a slip in quantity. Scanning,
+too, was an art full of traps for the unwary, but hardest of all for one
+of Pop's boys was it to translate. No matter how easy it might be by the
+aid of the oft-consulted "pony" to turn the Latin into English, it was
+the rule of the school that the Doctor's own beautiful rendition should
+be memorized word for word wherever it occurred, and the instances, like
+the notes, were all too copious. At the word "Enough" that checked his
+scanning the boy began to translate, and having given the poetic and
+flowery version of the great translator, then turned to and, word by
+word, followed with the literal meaning. Then came the prodding
+questions as to root, verb, subject, etc., and lucky was the youngster
+who, when he took his seat, found himself no more than half a dozen
+places below where he started. At the end of the hour the marks were
+totted up, and he who had the highest number marched to the head of the
+class, the others being assigned according to their score. It was all
+plain sailing when the Doctor himself was in the chair. Few boys
+ventured on fun with him. On the other hand, few other masters could
+maintain order on a system that gave such illimitable possibilities for
+devilment. To illustrate: It is a brisk October morning. School has
+"been in" an hour. The First Latin is arrayed for recitation in the
+AEneid, and the boys have easily induced an Italian organ-grinder to
+come, monkey and all, to serenade them, and to the lively notes of
+"Patrick's Day in the Morning" one of the confirmed scamps of the class
+is called upon to begin. He himself was the heaviest subscriber to the
+fund which secured the services of the dark-eyed exile and his agile
+monkey. Bliss knows nothing whatever of the lesson and is praying for
+the appearance of the red-capped simian at the window. The janitor has
+been sent down to bid the organ-grinder go away, but the boys have
+blocked that game by bidding higher, and the Italian is warned to pay no
+attention to such orders, but to hold his ground,--the neighborhood
+approves of him and he'll be short a quarter if he goes. John comes
+panting up-stairs to report his ill success, and meantime the recitation
+cannot go on. Bliss is finally told to pay no attention to "Patrick's
+Day" and to push ahead on the most beautiful lines in the book,
+
+     "_Non ignara mali, miseris succerere disco_,"
+
+and Bliss slips on the quantity of the first syllable of the third word,
+is promptly snapped up by Doremus, next below, who tallies one on his
+score and jumps above him. Bliss shuts his book despairingly. "Mr.
+Beach," he begins, in tones of deepest injury, "I know that just as well
+as anybody else; but I protest, sir, I'm so distracted by that grinding
+I can't do myself justice--or the subject either." And if the astute
+Beach had any lingering doubt as to whether the boys worked that game
+themselves or not the doubt is banished now. Bertram, Doremus, Snipe,
+Shorty, all are on their feet and pleading with the master to have that
+impudent music stopped. Mr. Beach vainly warns them to their seats and
+commands silence.
+
+"Mr. Beach, let me go down and drive him away,--I can do it," implores
+Beekman, the pigmy Gothamite. It is three minutes before the master can
+compel silence in the class, so great is its sense of the outrage upon
+its peace and dignity.
+
+"Mr. Beach, let me fetch a policeman," cries Shorty, who knows there
+isn't a blue-coat nearer than the Harlem depot at Twenty-sixth Street,
+and is spoiling for a chance to get out-of-doors.
+
+"The next boy who speaks until bidden will have five marks struck off,"
+says Beach, and with one accord the First Latin opens its twenty-seven
+mouths, even Hoover swelling the chorus, and, as though so many
+representatives in Congress assembled were hailing the chair, the
+twenty-seven ejaculate, "Mr. Beach, nobody's got five yet." Then little
+Post jumps up, in affected horror, and runs from his seat half-way to
+the master's table. "Mr. Beach!" he cries, "the monkey!"
+
+"Aw, sit down, Post," protests Joy, in the interest of school discipline
+and harmony. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself making such a fuss
+about a monkey." Snipe and Carey seize the first weapons
+obtainable--the sacred ruler and the Japan tray on the Doctor's
+desk--and make a lunge for the windows.
+
+"Lawton--Carey! Back to your seats!" orders Beach.
+
+"We only want to drive the monkey away, sir," protests Snipe, with
+imploring eyes. "Post'll have a fit, sir, if you let the monkey stay.
+He's subject to 'em. Ain't you, Post?"
+
+"_Yes_, sir," eagerly protests Post, on the swear-to-anything principle
+when it's a case of school devilment, and two minutes more are consumed
+in getting those scamps back to their places and recording their fines,
+"Ten marks apiece," which means that when the day's reckoning is made
+ten units will be deducted from their total score. The settlement, too,
+is prolonged and complicated through the ingenuity of Snipe and the
+connivance of Bagshot and Bertram, who have promptly moved up and
+occupied the place vacated by their long-legged, curly-pated, brown-eyed
+comrade, and who now sturdily maintain that Snipe doesn't know where he
+belongs. As a matter of fact, Snipe doesn't; neither does he greatly
+care. He's merely insisting on the customary frolic before the class
+settles down to business, but to see the fine indignation in his
+handsome face and listen to the volume of protest on his tongue you
+would fancy his whole nature was enlisted in the vehement assertion of
+his rights.
+
+Mr. Beach fines Snipe another five for losing his place, and then
+stultifies himself by ordering Bertram and Bagshot back to their
+original station, thus permitting Snipe to resume his seat, whereupon he
+promptly claims the remission of the fine on the ground that he himself
+had found it, and Bertram, a youth of much dignity of demeanor, gravely
+addresses Mr. Beach, and protests that in the interests of decency and
+discipline Lawton should forfeit his place, and to prove his entire
+innocence of selfish motive offers to leave it to the class, and go to
+the foot himself if they decide against him, and the class shouts
+approval and urges the distracted Beach to put Snipe out forthwith. Then
+somebody signals "Hush!" for Halsey, the head-master, the dark Othello,
+has scented mischief from afar, and is heard coming swiftly down from
+the floor above, and Halsey is a man who has his own joke but allows no
+others. Bliss is the only boy on his feet as the stern first officer
+enters and glances quickly and suspiciously about him.
+
+"Go on with the recitation, Mr. Beach," he says. "That Italian was
+doubtless hired by these young gentlemen. Let them dance to their own
+music now, the eloquent Bliss in the lead. Go on with your lines,
+Bliss."
+
+And as this is just what Bliss can't do, Bliss is promptly "flunked" and
+sent to the foot, where Hoover grins sardonically. He's ahead of one
+fellow anyhow. Just so long now as that organ-grinder does must Halsey
+stay--and supervise, and scorch even the best scholars in the class, for
+well he knows the First Latin and they him, and their respect for him is
+deeper than his for them, despite the known fact that Pop himself looks
+upon them with more than partial eyes. The class is getting the worst of
+it when in comes an opportune small boy. "Mr. Meeker says will Mr.
+Halsey please step into the Fourth Latin room a minute," and Halsey has
+to go.
+
+"If those young gentlemen give you any trouble, Mr. Beach, keep the
+whole class in at recess," he says, and thereupon, with eyes of saddest
+reproach, the class follows him to the door, as though to say, How can
+such injustice live in mind so noble? But the moment Halsey vanishes the
+gloom goes with him. Beach's eyes are on the boys at the foot of the
+class, and with a batter and bang the Japan tray on the Doctor's desk
+comes settling to the floor, while Joy, who dislodged it, looks straight
+into the master's startled eyes with a gaze in which conscious
+innocence, earnest appeal, utter disapprobation of such silly pranks,
+all are pictured. Joy can whip the bell out from under the master's nose
+and over the master's table and all the time look imploringly into the
+master's eyes, as though to say, "Just heaven! do you believe me capable
+of such disrespect as that?" Three boys precipitate themselves upon the
+precious waiter, eager to restore it to its place, and bang their heads
+together in the effort. Five marks off for Shorty, Snipe, and Post.
+Bagshot is on the floor, and announces as the sense of the First Latin
+that a boy who would do such a thing should be expelled. Mr. Beach says
+the First Latin hasn't any sense to speak of, and tells Bagshot to begin
+where he left off. Bagshot thereupon declares he can't remember. It's
+getting near the "business end" of the hour, and the whole class has to
+look to its marks, so it can't all be fun. Thereupon Beach, who is
+nothing if not classical, refers to Bagshot's lack of acquaintance with
+the Goddess of Memory. "Who was she, Bagshot?" "Mnemosyne." "Very good;
+yes, sir." ("Thought it was Bacchante!" shouts little Beekman. "No, sir.
+Five marks off, Beekman. No more from you, sir.") "Now, Bagshot, you
+should be higher than ten in your class to-day, and would be but for
+misbehavior. What was the color of Mnemosyne's hair?" Bagshot glares
+about him irresolute, and tries the doctrine of probability.
+
+"Red!"
+
+Beach compresses his lips. "M--n--no. That hardly describes it. Next."
+
+"Carnation," hazards Van Kleeck.
+
+"Next! Next! Next!" says Beach, indicating with his pencil one after
+another of the eager rank of boys, and, first one at a time and
+distinctly, then in confused tumbling over each other's syllables, the
+wiseacres of the class shout their various guesses.
+
+"Vermilion!"
+
+"Scarlet!"
+
+"Carrot color!"
+
+"Solferino!"
+
+"Magenta!"
+
+"Pea-green!"
+
+"Sky-blue!"
+
+"Brick-red!" (This last from Turner, who makes a bolt for a place above
+Bagshot, and can only be driven back and convinced of the inadequacy of
+his answer by liberal cuttings of ten to twenty marks.) Then, at last,
+Beach turns to Carey, at the far head of the class, and that gifted
+young gentleman drawls,--
+
+"Fl-a-a-me color."
+
+"Right!" says the master, whereupon half a dozen contestants from below
+spring to their feet, with indignation in their eyes:
+
+"Well, what did I say, sir?"
+
+"That's exactly what I meant, sir."
+
+"I'll leave it to Bliss if that wasn't my answer, sir."
+
+And nothing but the reappearance of Othello puts an end to the clamor
+and settles the claimants. Shorty submits that his answer covered the
+case, that Mnemosyne herself couldn't tell carrot color from flame, and
+is sure the Doctor would declare his answer right, but is summarily
+squelched by Mr. Halsey, and he has the "_nous_" to make no reference to
+the matter when the Doctor comes. The hour is nearly over. Only three
+minutes are allowed them in which to stow their Virgils in the big open
+bookcase and extract their algebras. Halsey vanishes to see to it that
+the Third Latin goes to the writing-room without mobbing the Fourth. The
+marks of the First are recorded, not without a volume of comment and
+chaff and protest. Then silence settles down as the master begins giving
+out the next day's lesson, for the word has been passed along the line
+of benches, "Get ready for a charge!" A moment later the janitor sounds
+the bell on the landing without, and twenty-six young fellows spring
+into air and rush for the bookcase. Not a word is spoken,--Hoover,
+alone, holds aloof,--but in less time than it takes to tell it, with
+solemnity on every face except one or two that will bubble over in
+excess of joy, the First Latin is jammed in a scrimmage such as one sees
+nowadays only on the football field. The whole living mass heaves
+against those stout partitions till they bend and crack. From the
+straining, struggling crew there rises the same moaning sound, swelling
+into roar and dying away into murmur, and at last the lustier fight
+their way out, algebras in hand, and within another five minutes order
+is apparently evolved from chaos.
+
+In such a turmoil and in such a charge Joy's watch disappeared that
+October day, and the school had not stopped talking of it yet.
+
+It has been said that two boys were the observed of gloomy eyes the
+Monday following Snipe's misfortune. One, Hoover, of course. The other a
+fellow who in turn had sought to be everybody's chum and had ended by
+being nobody's. His name was Briggs. He was a big, powerful fellow,
+freckle-faced, sandy-haired, and gifted with illimitable effrontery. He
+was a boy no one liked and no one could snub, for Briggs had a skin as
+thick as the sole of a school-boy's boot, and needed it. One
+circumstance after another during the previous year had turned one boy
+after another from him, but Briggs kept up every appearance of cordial
+relations, even with those who cold-shouldered him and would have naught
+to do with him. During the previous school-year he had several times
+followed Snipe, Shorty, and their particular set, only to find that they
+would scatter sooner than have him one of the party. He had been denied
+admission to the houses of most of the class. He had been twice
+blackballed by the Uncas, and it was said by many of the school when
+Briggs began to consort with Hoover that he had at last found his proper
+level. One allegation at his expense the previous year had been that he
+was frequently seen at billiard-rooms or on the streets with those two
+Hulkers, and even Hoover had hitherto eschewed that association. Perhaps
+at first the Hulkers would not have Hoover. The class couldn't tell and
+really didn't care to know. One thing was certain: within the fortnight
+preceding the opening of this story Briggs and Hoover had been together
+more than a little and with the Hulkers more than enough.
+
+"Are you sure of what you say?" both Carey and Joy had asked Shorty that
+exciting Monday morning, as the eager youngster detailed for the tenth
+time the incidents of the assault on Snipe.
+
+"I'm as sure of it as I am of the fire," said Shorty, positively. "Jim
+Briggs was with the Metamora crowd, running in the street. He looked
+back and laughed after he saw Snipe down."
+
+But when confronted with this statement by the elders of the "Sacred
+Band" Briggs promptly and indignantly denied it.
+
+"I never heard of it till to-day!" said he. "'Spose I'd stand by and see
+one of my class knocked endwise by a lot of roughs? _No_, sir!"
+
+It was a question of veracity, then, between Briggs and Shorty, the
+class believing the latter, but being unable to prove the case. Snipe
+himself could say nothing. Being in the lead, he had seen none of the
+runners of the Metamora except the heels of a few as they bounded over
+him when he rolled into the street. There was an intense feeling
+smouldering in the class. They were indeed "laying" for Hoover as they
+had been for Briggs when they tumbled out for recess. The latter, with
+his characteristic vim and effrontery, denied all knowledge of the
+affair, as has been said, and challenged the class to prove a thing
+against him. The former, as has been told, lurked within-doors. What had
+he to fear? He was not at the scene of the fire and the assault. He
+never had energy enough to run. There was some reason why he shrank from
+meeting or being questioned by the boys. There was some reason why Snipe
+Lawton should have left them and returned to the school, and was
+discovered standing there at the doorway, looking fixedly at the
+head-master's angered face as it glowered on Hoover and the tearful
+John. Whatever the reason, it could not well be divulged in the presence
+of Mr. Halsey. Hoover stood off another proposed demonstration in his
+honor after school at three o'clock by remaining behind, and only coming
+forth when he could do so under the majestic wing of the Doctor himself.
+Pop looked curiously at the knots of lingering First Latins, and raised
+his high-top hat in response to their salutations. Hoover huddled close
+to his side until several blocks were traversed and pursuit was
+abandoned. Then he shot into a street-car, leaving the Doctor to ponder
+on the unusual attention. And so it happened that while the class was
+balked for the time of its purpose, and the victim of Saturday's assault
+was debarred from making the queries he had planned, Mr. Halsey was
+enabled to pursue his bent. Just as the little group of five, gazing in
+disappointment up the avenue after the vanishing forms of the Doctor and
+Hoover, was breaking up with the consolatory promise that they'd
+confront Hoover with their charges first thing in the morning, the
+open-mouthed janitor came running.
+
+"Oh, Lawton!" he panted, "Mr. Halsey says he wishes to speak with you,
+and to please come right back."
+
+"I'll wait for you, Snipe," said Shorty. "Day-day, you other fellows."
+And wait he did, ten, twenty minutes, and no Snipe came, and, wondering
+much, the smaller lad went whistling down the avenue, forgetful, in the
+fact that he still wore the jacket, of the dignity demanded of a lad of
+the First Latin and full sixteen. He wondered more when eight o'clock
+came that evening and without Snipe's ring at the door-bell. He wondered
+most when he saw Snipe's pallid, sad-eyed face on the morrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+There was something in the friendship between those two members of the
+First Latin not entirely easy for the school to understand. In many ways
+they were antitheses,--Snipe, over-long; Shorty, under-sized; Snipe,
+brown-eyed and taciturn, as a rule; Shorty, blue-eyed and talkative
+(Loquax was Pop's pet name for him); Snipe was studious; Shorty quick to
+learn, but intolerant of drudgery. Both loved play, active exercise, and
+adventure. Both took naturally to everything connected with the fire
+department, but in addition the smaller boy had a decided love for the
+military, and was a member of the drum corps of a famous organization of
+the old State militia, and vastly proud of it. Snipe loved the
+fishing-rod, and Shorty had no use for one. Shorty loved drill, Snipe
+couldn't bear it. Take it all in all, they were an oddly assorted pair,
+but when forty-eight hours passed without their being in close
+communion something had gone sadly amiss; and that was the case now.
+
+Everybody knew that Snipe Lawton had little or no money of any kind, but
+few knew why. His own father had been dead many years. His mother had
+remarried when he was twelve years old, and between the boy and his
+step-father there was no love whatever. Nor was this the boy's fault.
+Open-hearted, affectionate, and of gentle nature, he had really tried to
+like and to win the regard of the man who had won his mother's heart and
+had given her an attractive, even a beautiful, home. But there are men
+who have no sympathy whatever with boys. Mr. Park was one of these, and,
+after two years of experiment, gave up trying to understand his
+step-son, and declared that the boy must be sent away to school. It is
+needless to describe what those two years were to the mother or to the
+son. Both welcomed the decision, though it cost the former many tears. A
+younger sister was married and living in New York City. Mr. Park was a
+Columbiad and a fervent admirer of the great Doctor. It was arranged
+that the boy should have his home under the roof of his aunt, Mrs.
+Lawrence, and his lessons under Pop. He grew rapidly, and his clothes
+were generally short for him. He was shy, sensitive, and hated to ask
+for money from home, because it had to come from his step-father. Time
+and again he could not go to the little social gatherings of his
+schoolmates, with whom he became popular almost from the start, solely
+because of his outgrown coat and trousers. His aunt had a houseful of
+company much of the time; her husband's kindred were numerous and
+prevalent, and, to tell the truth, she was a little ashamed of the tall,
+shy, sometimes awkward, if not gawky, boy, whose wrists were always in
+evidence and whose trousers were so short and shabby. And so it resulted
+that poor Snipe had his little bedroom in her garret, which the servants
+soon learned they could neglect with impunity, and a place at her table
+when they were not entertaining company; but home, he really had none.
+Breakfast was served at the Lawrences' at nine o'clock, but before that
+time Snipe was expected to come down to forage for himself and be off to
+school and out of the way. Luncheon he could take with him, if he chose
+to put it up and carry it, but as none of the other boys did this Snipe
+soon ceased, and one of Duncan's doughnuts was the mid-day sustenance,
+washed down by a glass of what the Doctor referred to as "copious cold
+Croton" (the Doctor loved that word copious), and on this rather meagre
+diet Snipe worried through the day till dinner-time, which with Uncle
+and Aunt Lawrence was half-after six, and a very hungry boy was he who
+silently, even humbly, took his seat among the lively, chattering party
+(there were always six or eight in the family circle), and, as soon as
+his appetite was appeased, was permitted to withdraw, presumably, to his
+studies, though the fact that he was at Shorty's home was always
+comforting to Aunt Lawrence, for she had great regard for certain
+feminine relatives of the smaller boy, and believed that wherever they
+presided her nephew could not possibly get into mischief. It is not that
+Aunt Lawrence was either knowingly neglectful or actively unkind. She
+was a busy woman, a fashionable woman, a woman full of pleasant impulse.
+She had told George to be sure and come to her whenever anything went
+wrong, when he needed advice or aid, or--rather vaguely--anything else.
+She had told the butler to be sure to see that Master George had coffee
+ready every morning at quarter-past eight, and the seamstress was
+ordered to keep his wardrobe in repair, and for a month or so both did
+as they were bid, and then let Master George look out for himself. Mr.
+Park had requested Mr. Lawrence to see that George was given fifty cents
+each Saturday for his spending money, out of which he was to provide his
+own shoes and gloves. This was Park's own allowance in the old days when
+he was a boy at the grammar school and Columbia was away down-town,
+about on line with the City Hall, and the boys lunched sumptuously at
+Shaddle's for thrippence; but Park had not to buy his shoes in those
+days, though he said he bought his gloves out of his little sum. He
+simply argued that it would be good discipline for his step-son to learn
+to economize. Gloves and shoes cost much less in the ante-bellum days
+than now, and less in Park's school-days than in those of his step-son.
+George took what was given him silently and without appeal, and during
+his three years at Pop's that was every cent of money he received from
+home. But gloves, he said, he had no use for, and boots were far beyond
+him. Furthermore, low shoes, summer and winter both, were best to run
+in, and not another boy at the Doctor's dreamed of the true state of the
+case, unless it was little Shorty, for to that boy the hungry heart of
+the lonely fellow seemed to go out from the start. He, too, was an
+alien; he, too, had left the mother wing to find a nest in the great,
+thronging city; he, too, was probably not a little in the way, but for
+him at least there was warmth and interest and sympathy and kindliness,
+and many a time and oft did Snipe roost all night long in that snug
+white bed of Shorty's, with no one "at home" the wiser. And many and
+many a time had he been made welcome at the bountiful board where Shorty
+sat among an affectionate kindred, and the tall boy's soft brown eyes
+seemed mutely to thank each member of the big family circle for every
+pleasant word. They had grown to like him, despite his silence, or
+perhaps because of it and its contrast with Shorty's chatter. They took
+no note of his short-sleeved, skimpy sack-coat or the low shoes at which
+Briggs had sneered and other fellows at school had levelled their
+witticisms until they saw it hurt, and then, wonder of wonders, the
+latter quit it. With all their impulse for fun and frolic and mischief,
+Pop's boys had the leaven of gentlemen. Even Hoover had never twitted
+Lawton on the evidences of his poverty, and there were others of that
+immortal twenty-seven little better off than he. In all the First Latin,
+Briggs had been the only one to continue the torment after the discovery
+that it brought pain and distress, and even Briggs no longer dare
+attempt it when certain of the class were near, for Julian, overhearing
+him one day, had called him aside at recess and told him that only a
+mean-spirited whelp would be guilty of such a thing, slapped his face,
+and invited him into a neighboring stable to fight it out, which
+invitation Briggs declined. Even little Shorty, overhearing Briggs one
+day, had flown at him like a young bull-terrier and drawn blood from
+Briggs's nose before they could be separated. The class stood up for
+Snipe most loyally in these days of his early tribulations, and by the
+time Second Latin year was over no one seemed to think of his worn and
+undeniably shabby garb. Snipe himself was "all right," said they. But
+there was lingering venom in the soul of Briggs, and as for Hoover, his
+soul was that of Ishmael and his hand against everybody, and when these
+two crabbed natures drifted together in alliance, offensive and
+defensive, it meant trouble for somebody, and there was no fun in the
+First Latin when Tuesday came, for to one and all it was plain that
+Snipe Lawton's heart was heavy, and his big brown eyes were full of
+nameless misery.
+
+Twice that morning had Shorty tried to get him aside with sympathetic
+question, but the elder shook his head. There was no time. At recess,
+when Shorty counted on seeing his chum and hearing the whole story,
+Lawton never came out at all. John, the janitor, said he was having a
+talk with Mr. Halsey, trying to get him not to report something to the
+Doctor, but John himself seemed ill at ease and anxious to avoid
+question. The class communed together and instinctively connected Briggs
+and Hoover with the mystery, but Hoover had disappointed everybody by
+remaining away from school that day, and as for Briggs, he was in
+everybody's way. Wherever he saw a group in low-toned conference he
+would make for it, and by his very presence and loud-voiced questions
+and conjectures put an end to their confidences. Everybody seemed to
+feel that when the Doctor came down that afternoon there would be a
+sensation of some kind, and school reassembled after recess and the
+First Latin went to its benches without even accidentally upsetting one
+of them. Snipe was sitting at the end of the upper bench looking
+drearily out on the avenue, and Mr. Halsey, with darker face than usual,
+had taken his accustomed place.
+
+A spiritless recitation was begun, Snipe losing his head and memory and
+place after place. There were boys who knew the answers to questions at
+which he only shook his head and who presently refused to speak and go
+above him. Halsey's face grew darker and darker at these evidences of
+sympathy. The "next! next! next!" became incessant. Up even towards the
+head of the class, above the seat to which the sad-eyed fellow had
+drifted, there was no animation. The leaders gave their answers in low
+tones, as though to say, "We've got to go through with this, but we've
+no heart in it. Snipe's proper place is up here among us." It was
+actually a relief to everybody when at last, towards the close of the
+hour, the Doctor's heavy tread was heard, slow and majestic, ascending
+the wooden stairs.
+
+It was his custom to halt at the doorway, and from that point of view
+survey his waiting scholars, the foot of the class coming in for
+invariable comment. I can see him now, portly, erect, scrupulously neat
+and exact in dress from the crown of his deeply weeded high top hat to
+the tip of his polished shoes. Clean shaved, the wide upper lip, the
+broad massive chin, the great sweep of jaw. Collar, cuffs, and
+shirt-front immaculate; coat, waistcoat, and trousers, and the broad
+stock of flawless black. The gold seal dangling from his watch ribbon
+the only speck of color, the gold top of his stout, straight, black cane
+concealed in his hand. Under their shaggy brows the deep-set gray eyes
+twinkle, as slowly he lifts the long ferule and points it at the
+luckless wight on the lowermost bench; then with inquiring gaze sweeps
+the line of intent young faces, looking for some one.
+
+"What!" he says. "Another occupant! Where, then, is the
+
+     '_Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum_'?"
+
+And at any other day the class, barring Hoover, would have shouted with
+appreciative joy; but not to-day. Despite Hoover's absence a cloud has
+lowered over their house. They cannot laugh, even in counterfeited glee,
+and the Doctor's face changes on the instant as he steps within. He has
+noted Lawton's unusual position and his strange, white face.
+
+"Anything wrong, Mr. Halsey?"
+
+The head-master rises and turns to his revered senior. In low tone he
+says, so that only one or two can catch the words, "A matter I'll have
+to tell you after school, sir." And school must last over an hour
+longer. Silently the class exchanges the text-book for Xenophon. The
+Doctor's own hour has come, sacred to Greek, and silently the boys
+retake their places. But the occasion weighs upon the Doctor's mind.
+Something tells him there is worry ahead, and the sooner it is met the
+better. One expedient never fails him. "How have they done to-day, Mr.
+Halsey?"
+
+The head-master purses up his lip. He knows that since recess at least,
+so far as recitation is concerned, they have done unusually ill; but he
+knows what the Doctor desires.
+
+"_Behaved_ rather better than usual, sir."
+
+"One good turn deserves another," says Pop. "How many young gentlemen of
+the First Latin deserve half holiday? All hands up!" And up go the
+hands, but with only half the usual alacrity.
+
+"The ayes have it. The class may retire."
+
+And slowly the First Latin finds its legs and lingers, for Halsey
+whispers to Pop, and the latter, with somewhat grayer shade to his face,
+says, "Lawton will remain."
+
+The boys dawdle unaccountably about the big bookcase, glancing over
+their shoulders at Lawton, who sits with drooping head and downcast eyes
+opposite Halsey's table. Briggs, panting a little, slinks through the
+silent group to the doorway, and scuttles quickly down the stairs. When
+Joy and Beekman reach the street he is peering round the stable at the
+corner, but slips out of sight an instant later. Three or four of the
+class, Shorty among them, still hover about the coat-rack. Shorty says
+he can't find his overshoes, which is not remarkable, as he did not wear
+them. Halsey is nervously tapping his desk with the butt of his pencil
+and glancing at the dawdlers with ominous eyes. At last the Doctor
+uplifts his head and voice. He has been looking over some papers on his
+desk.
+
+"Those young gentlemen at the coat-rack seem reluctant to leave school,
+Mr. Halsey. Hah! Julian, cestus bearing! Dix, ecclesiasticus! Et tu,
+puer parvule, lingua longissima!" He pauses impressively, and, raising
+hand and pencil, points to the door. "If one of 'em comes back before
+to-morrow, Mr. Halsey, set him to work on Sallust."
+
+And then the three know enough to stand no longer on the order of their
+going. Their faces are full of sympathy as they take a farewell peep at
+Snipe, and Shorty signals to unseeing eyes "I'll wait." And wait the
+little fellow does, a long hour, kicking his heels about the cold
+pavement without, and then the Second Latin comes tumbling down-stairs,
+scattering with noisy glee, and marvelling much to see Shorty looking
+blue and cold and mournful. He will not answer their questions; he's
+only waiting for Snipe. And another quarter-hour passes, and then for an
+instant the boy's eyes brighten, and he springs forward as his tall chum
+appears at the doorway, cap downpulled over his eyes, coat-collar
+hunched up to his ears, a glimpse of stocking between the hem of his
+scant trousers and those inadequate shoes. But the light goes out as
+quickly as it came, for with Lawton, similarly bundled up and well-nigh
+as shabby, is the head-master, who silently uplifts his hand and warns
+Shorty back; then, linking an arm in one of Lawton's, leads him away
+around the corner of Twenty-fifth Street.
+
+It is more than the youngster can stand. Long-legged Damon, short-legged
+Pythias, the two have been friends since Third Latin days and chums for
+over a year. Shorty springs after the retreating forms, but halts short
+at sound of his name, called in imperative tone from above. At the open
+window stands the Doctor gazing out. He uses no further words. His right
+hand is occupied with his snowy cambric handkerchief. With his left he
+makes two motions. He curves his finger inward, indicating plainly
+"Come back!" and then with the index points down the avenue, meaning as
+plainly "Go!" and there is no cheery, undignified whistle as Shorty
+hastens to tell his tale of sorrow to sympathetic ears at home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+There were three more school-days that week, and they were the quietest
+of the year. On the principle that it was an ill wind that blew nobody
+good, there was one instructor to whom such unusual decorum was welcome,
+and that was poor Meeker, who noted the gloom in the eyes of most of the
+First Latin, and responsively lengthened his face, yet at bottom was
+conscious of something akin to rejoicing. His had been a hapless lot. He
+had entered upon his duties the first week in September, and the class
+had taken his measure the first day. A better-meaning fellow than Meeker
+probably never lived, but he was handicapped by a soft, appealing manner
+and a theory that to get the most out of boys he must have their
+good-will, and to get their good-will he must load them with what the
+class promptly derided as "blarney." He was poor and struggling, was
+graduated high in his class at college, was eager to prepare himself for
+the ministry, and took to teaching in the mean time to provide the
+necessary means. The First Latin would have it that Pop didn't want him
+at all, but that Meeker gave him no rest until promised employment, for
+Meeker had well known that there was to be a vacancy, and was first to
+apply for it. But what made it more than a luckless move for him was
+that he had applied for the position vacated by a man Pop's boys adored,
+"a man from the ground up," as they expressed it, a splendid,
+deep-voiced, deep-chested, long-limbed athlete, with a soul as big as
+his massive frame and an energy as boundless as the skies. He, too, had
+worked his way to the priesthood, teaching long hours at Pop's each day,
+tutoring college weaklings or would-be freshmen in the evenings,
+studying when and where he could, but wasting never a minute. Never was
+there a tutor who preached less or practised more. His life was a lesson
+of self-denial, of study, of purpose. Work hard, play hard, pray hard,
+might have been his motto, for whatsoever that hand of his found to do
+that did he with all his might. Truth, manliness, magnetism, were in
+every glance of his clear eyes, every tone of his deep voice. Boys
+shrank from boys' subterfuges and turned in unaccustomed disgust from
+school-boy lies before they had been a month in Tuttle's presence; he
+seemed to feel such infinite pity for a coward. Never using a harsh
+word, never an unjust one, never losing faith or temper, his was yet so
+commanding a nature that by sheer force of his personality and example
+his pupils followed unquestioning. With the strength of a Hercules, he
+could not harm an inferior creature. With the courage of a lion, he had
+only sorrow for the faint-hearted. With a gift and faculty for
+leadership that would have made him a general-in-chief, he was humble as
+a child in the sight of his Maker, and in all the long years of his
+great, brave life, only once, that his boys ever heard of, did he use
+that rugged strength to discipline or punish a human being, and that
+only when courtesy and persuasion had failed to stop a ruffian tongue in
+its foul abuse of that Maker's name. It was a solemn day for the school,
+a glad one for the church militant, when he took leave of the one to
+take his vows in the other. There wasn't a boy among all his pupils that
+would have been surprised at his becoming a bishop inside of five
+years,--as, indeed, he did inside of ten,--and the class had not ceased
+mourning their loss when Meeker came to take his place. "Fill Tut's
+shoes!" said Snipe, with fine derision. "Why, he'll rattle around in 'em
+like shot in a drum." No wonder Meeker failed to fill the bill.
+
+And yet he tried hard. Something told him the First Latin would decide
+whether he should go or stay. Halsey had not been consulted in his
+selection, or Halsey would have told the Doctor in so many words that it
+took a man of bigger calibre to handle that class. Beach had not been
+consulted. He had known Meeker in undergraduate days and thought him
+lacking in backbone. Pop had "sprung" him, so to speak, upon the
+school, as though he really felt he owed his boys an apology, and, with
+the ingenuity of so many unregenerate young imps, the First Latin set to
+work to make Meeker's life a burden to him.
+
+It was one of the fads of the school that the individual slate should be
+used in mathematical hour instead of a wall slate or blackboard. It was
+one of the practices to give out examples in higher arithmetic or
+equations in algebra and have the pupils work them out then and there,
+each boy, presumably, working for himself. Meeker introduced a
+refinement of the system. He announced one example at a time, and
+directed that as soon as a pupil had finished the work he should step
+forward and deposit his slate, face downward, on the corner of the
+master's table. The next boy to finish should place his slate on top of
+that of the first, and at the end of five minutes the pile of slates
+thus formed was turned bottom side up. All boys who had not finished
+their work in the given time--four, five, six, or eight minutes,
+according to the difficulty of the problem--were counted out. All whose
+work proved to be incorrect were similarly scored, while those who had
+obtained by proper methods the right result were credited with a mark of
+three, with an additional premium for the quickest, the first boy
+counting six, the second five, the third four. Meeker introduced the
+system with a fine flourish of trumpets and marvelled at its prompt
+success. Even boys known to be lamentably backward in the
+multiplication-table were found to present slates full of apparently
+unimpeachable figures in cube root or equations of the second degree,
+and the whole twenty-seven would have their slates on the pile within
+the allotted time. "Of course," said Meeker, "it is beyond belief that
+young gentlemen of the First Latin would be guilty of accepting
+assistance or copying from a competitor's work," whereat there would be
+heard the low murmur, as of far-distant, but rapidly approaching,
+tornado, and the moan would swell unaccountably, even while every pencil
+was flying, every eye fixed upon the slate. This thing went along for
+two or three days with no more serious mishap than that twice, without
+an apparent exciting cause, while Meeker would be elaborately explaining
+some alleged knotty point to Joy or Lawton, the half-completed stack
+would edge slowly off the slippery table and topple with prodigious
+crash and clatter to the floor. Then Meeker bethought himself of a
+stopper to these seismic developments, and directed that henceforth,
+instead of being deposited at the corner, the slates should be laid
+directly in front of him on the middle of the desk. This was most
+decorously done as much as twice, and then an extraordinary thing
+occurred. It had occasionally happened that two or even three of the
+boys would finish their work at the same moment, and in their eagerness
+to get their slates foremost on the stack a race, a rush, a collision,
+had resulted. Then these became surprisingly frequent, as many as four
+boys finishing together and coming like quarter horses to the goal, but
+the day that Meeker hit on the expedient of piling the slates up
+directly in front of him, and at the third essay, there was witnessed
+the most astonishing thing of all. Snipe was always a leader in
+mathematics, as he was in mischief, and he, Carey, Satterlee, and Joy
+were sure to be of the first four, but now, for a wonder, four, even
+five, minutes passed and not a slate was in. "Come, come, gentlemen,"
+said Meeker, "there's nothing remarkable in this example. I obtained the
+result with the utmost ease in three minutes." And still the heads bent
+lower over the slates and the pencils whizzed more furiously. Five
+minutes went by. "Most astonishing!" said Meeker, and began going over
+his own work to see if there could be any mistake, and no sooner was he
+seen to be absorbed thereat than quick glances shot up and down the long
+bench-line and slates were deftly passed from hand to hand. The laggards
+got those of the quicker. The experts swiftly straightened out the
+errors of the slow, and some mysterious message went down from hand to
+hand in Snipe's well-known chirography, and then, just as Meeker would
+have raised his head to glance at the time and warn them there was but
+half a minute more, as one boy up rose the twenty-seven and charged upon
+him with uplifted slates. Batter, clatter, rattle, bang! they came
+crashing down upon the desk, while in one mighty, struggling upheaval
+the class surged about him and that unstable table.
+
+    "But those behind cried 'Forward!'
+    And those before cried 'Back!'"
+
+Turner, Beekman, Snipe, and Shorty vigorously expostulating against such
+riotous performances and appealing to their classmates not to upset Mr.
+Meeker, who had tilted back out of his chair only in the nick of time,
+for the table followed, skating across the floor, and it was "really
+verging on the miraculous," said he, "that these gentlemen should all
+finish at the same instant." But that was the last of the slate-pile
+business. "Hereafter, young gentlemen," said Meeker, on the morrow, "you
+will retain your seats and slates, but as soon as you have obtained the
+result hold up your hand. I will record the name and the order and then
+call you forward, as I may wish to see your slates." This worked
+beautifully just once, then the hands would go up in blocks of five, and
+the class as one boy would exclaim "Astonishing! Miraculous!" Then
+Meeker abandoned the speed system and tried the plan of calling up at
+thirty-second intervals by the watch as many boys as he thought should
+have finished, beginning at the head of the class. And then the First
+Latin gave him an exhibition of the peculiar properties of those
+benches. They were about eight or nine feet long, supported on two
+stoutly braced "legs," with the seat projecting some eighteen inches
+beyond each support. Put one hundred and forty pounds on one end of an
+eight-foot plank, with a fulcrum a foot away, and the long end will tilt
+up and point to the roof in the twinkling of an eye. Meeker called his
+lads up three at a time, at the beginning of the next new system, and
+smiled to see how smoothly it worked and how uncommonly still the lads
+were. Then came exhibit number two, and in the most innocent way in the
+world Doremus and Ballou--the heavy weights of the class--took seats at
+the extreme lower end of their respective benches. The sudden rising of
+the three other occupants when called forward resulted in instant
+gymnastics. The long bench suddenly tilted skyward, a fat young
+gentleman was spilled off the shorter end, vehemently struggling and
+sorely bruised, and then back the bench would come with a bang that
+shook the premises, while half the class would rush in apparent
+consternation to raise their prostrate and aggrieved comrade. Hoover's
+bench was never known to misbehave in this way, for he had it usually
+all to himself, except when some brighter lad was sent to the foot in
+temporary punishment. But no matter how absurd the incident, how
+palpable the mischief, it was apparently a point of honor with the class
+to see nothing funny in it, to maintain an expression of severe
+disapproval, if not of righteous indignation, and invariably to denounce
+the perpetrators of such indignity as unworthy to longer remain in a
+school whose boast it was that the scholars loved their masters and
+would never do aught to annoy them. The most amazing things were
+perpetually happening. Meeker's eyes were no sharper than his wits, and
+he could not understand how it was that Snipe and Joy, two of the
+keenest mathematicians in the class, should so frequently require
+assistance at the desk, and when they returned to their seats, such
+objects on his table as the hand-bell, the pen-rack, or even the
+ink-stand, would be gifted with invisible wings and whisk off after
+them. Nothing could exceed Snipe's astonishment and just abhorrence when
+it was finally discovered that a long loop of tough but almost invisible
+horse-hair was attached to the back of his sack-coat, or the
+condemnation in the expressed disapprobation of the class when Joy was
+found to be similarly equipped. Then Meeker's high silk hat, hung on a
+peg outside Pop's particular closet, began to develop astonishing powers
+of procreation, bringing forth one day a litter of mice, on another a
+pair of frolicsome kittens. Meeker abandoned the hat for a billycock as
+the autumn wore on, and the class appeared content; only the Doctor was
+allowed a high hat. But Meeker was of nervous temperament, and started
+at sudden sounds and squirmed under the influence of certain others,
+noting which the class sympathetically sprinkled the floor with
+torpedoes and jumped liked electrified frogs when they exploded under
+some crunching heel, and the fuel for the big stove presently became
+gifted with explosive tendencies that filled Meeker's soul with dread,
+and the room with smoke, and the breasts of the First Latin with amaze
+that the janitor could be so careless. Then there was a strolling
+German band, with clarinets of appalling squeak, that became speedily
+possessed of the devil and a desire to "spiel" under the school windows
+just after the mathematical hour began, and Meeker's voice was uplifted
+from the windows in vain protest. The band was well paid to come and the
+policeman to keep away. I fear me that many a dime of poor Snipe's
+little stipend went into that unhallowed contribution rather than into
+his boots. All this and more was Meeker accepting with indomitable
+smiles day after day until the sudden withdrawal of George Lawton from
+the school,--no boy knew why, and all the fun went out of the hearts of
+the First Latin when they heard the rumor going round that Pop himself
+had written to his old pupil, Mr. Park, suggesting that his step-son
+would better be recalled from a city which seemed so full of dangerous
+temptation to one of George's temperament, and yet Pop had really seemed
+fond of him.
+
+The whole thing was unaccountable. The most miserable lad in school,
+apparently, was Shorty. He had gone to the Lawrences to inquire for his
+chum right after dinner that Tuesday evening, and the servant checked
+him when he would have bolted, as usual, up the stairs to George's room.
+Mrs. Lawrence was entertaining friends at dinner, but had left word that
+if Master Reggie came he was to be told that George could see no one
+that evening, that Mrs. Lawrence would explain it all later. Shorty
+went there Wednesday on his way to school, and the butler said Master
+George was still in his room, and that he was not to be disturbed.
+Wednesday at recess the leaders of the class held a council and
+determined to appoint a committee to ask an explanation of the Doctor,
+since not a word could be extracted from Halsey or Beach, and the
+committee called right after recitation and "rose and reported" within
+two minutes. Pop silently pointed to the door. Then seeing that Shorty
+and Joy still lingered, half determined, supplemented the gesture by
+"Young gentlemen, pack yourselves off! When I am ready to tell you,
+you'll hear it and not before."
+
+But the woe in Shorty's face was too much for him, after all. He knew
+the lads and the friendship they bore each other.
+
+"Here you, sir!" he cried, with affected sternness, "sit there till I
+want you," and he pointed to a bench, even while frowning at the others
+of the disheartened delegation, who scuttled away down-stairs in dread
+of the Doctor's rising wrath. When all were gone and the big, bare
+school-rooms were still, Pop looked up from a letter he was writing,
+beckoned with his long forefinger, then reversing the hand, pointed
+downward at the floor beside his desk, and Shorty, recognizing the
+signal, with leaping heart and twitching lips, marched up and took his
+stand, looking dumbly into the Doctor's pallid face. The great man
+shoved his gold-rimmed spectacles half-way up across the expanse of
+forehead the lads had likened to "a ten-acre lot," folded his hands
+across the voluminous waistcoat, and leaned back in his chair. Then his
+eyes swept downward.
+
+"Has our friend Snipe often been in need of money?" he asked.
+
+"He had hardly any at all, sir," blurted Shorty, with something like a
+sob. "There are holes in the soles of his shoes and corresponding holes
+worn in his stockings, and the skin of the soles of his feet'll go next.
+He never had enough to get a decent lunch with, and couldn't join our
+first nine last year because he hadn't the uniform and wouldn't ask for
+one. The Club subscribed and bought it,--he was so bully a player. All
+the----"
+
+The Doctor knows that Shorty is not named because of brevity in speech,
+and upraises a white hand. "Did he owe any of the boys,--Hoover, for
+instance?"
+
+"He wouldn't borrow," said Shorty, indignantly; "last of all from
+Hoover. None of us ever owe _him_ anything except----" And Shorty gulps,
+and the tears that were starting to his eyes burn out before the sudden
+fire of his wrath.
+
+"Except what?" asks Pop, deliberately.
+
+"A lickin'," says Shorty, with reddening face, whereat the Doctor's head
+tilts back and the great stomach heaves spasmodically. The grim lines
+about the wide mouth relax. It is his way of laughing and he enjoys it,
+but Shorty doesn't.
+
+"I wish you'd tell me what's the trouble with--with Lawton, sir," he
+almost sobs again. "They won't let me see him, and the boys say it's all
+a----" But here Shorty breaks off, which is unlike him.
+
+"Yes," suggested Pop, "they say it's all a--what?"
+
+"Shame," said Shorty, well knowing that that shame is mentally qualified
+by a most unqualified adjective.
+
+Pop ponders a moment. "Has none of the boys missed anything besides
+Joy,--no trinkets, rings, anything?"
+
+"Hoover and Briggs are always missing something, sir, and Seymour lost a
+gold pencil."
+
+"But Lawton never borrowed and didn't owe anybody,--in school, I mean?"
+asks Pop.
+
+"Didn't owe anybody _anywhere_ that I know of!" protests Shorty. "He
+says it makes him sick to owe anything. If Hoover says anything
+different, he's lying. That's all."
+
+"What's the reason Hoover isn't at school?" asks Pop, and while his face
+does not change the eyes study closely.
+
+"He's afraid of trouble because some of that Metamora set tripped and
+hurt Snipe, running to a fire last Saturday."
+
+"That's what you get for running to fires, sir. Young gentlemen have no
+business mingling with crowds and rowdies. That's why you lost the head
+of the class in Latin three weeks ago. You spent hours at that big fire
+down-town when you should have been at your Virgil."
+
+Shorty reddens, but attempts no defence. He knows it is so. He knows,
+furthermore, that if the bell were to strike the next minute he'd be off
+like the wind,--Latin, and even Snipe, to the contrary notwithstanding.
+What he doesn't understand is how the Doctor knows all about it.
+
+"Youngster," says the Doctor, after a moment's reflection, "I want
+Hoover back at school at once, and there must be no harming him in any
+way. What's more, I have told Lawton to stay away until I send for him.
+There are reasons for this, and you can say so to the class. To-night
+you will see him yourself, and he will tell you the whole story. Now, I
+must write to Hoover _paterfamilias_. Run along!"
+
+But Pop is mistaken in one matter. Shorty does not see Snipe that night,
+nor the next day, nor the next. He waits vainly until late in the
+evening, then goes to the Lawrences', and Mrs. Lawrence, with scared
+face, comes down to ask what he means. George had asked permission soon
+after dark to go and spend one hour with his friend and chum and tell
+him his troubles. It is now ten o'clock. He has not been there, and he
+has not returned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Forty-eight hours passed without a trace of George Lawton, and they were
+the saddest two days the First Latin ever knew. "All the life went out
+of the school with Snipe," was the way Joy expressed it, though no
+fellow in the whole establishment was credited with more mischief than
+the speaker. Lessons and recitations, despite the best efforts of Halsey
+and Beach and the lamb-like bleatings of Meeker, seemed to fall flat.
+Even the leaders went through with them in a style more dead than alive,
+and at every sound upon the stairs all eyes would be fixed on the
+doorway and matters would come to a stand-still in the class. It was
+plain that every boy was thinking only of the missing comrade and
+praying for tidings of him. The masters, too, were weighed down with
+apprehension--or something. Othello's dark face wore a yellowish hue,
+and Meeker looked the picture of nervous woe. His complexion, always
+pallid, now seemed ashen, and he started at every sudden sound. Thursday
+went by without a word of any kind of news. The class huddled together
+at recess, taking no notice whatever of Hoover, who skulked away for his
+smoke, followed by many unloving eyes but without audible comment, for
+Shorty had conveyed Pop's dictum to the class, and when Pop took his
+boys into his confidence, as, through some one or two of their number he
+sometimes did, and told them thus and so, there was no question. That
+class at least observed his wishes to the letter. Hoover had been told
+to return to school and no questions asked, and the First Latin was
+virtually pledged to the arrangement.
+
+     "_Aut impendere viam, aut poscere causas._"
+
+But a wretched-looking Hoover it was that emerged from the Doctor's
+closet at two that afternoon and slunk back to the accustomed place at
+the foot of the room. Even Briggs had steered clear of him, and every
+one noted how Briggs flitted about from group to group during recess,
+his old-time "cheek" apparently vanished, his effrontery replaced by
+nervous appeal. He had seized on Shorty, as the boys turned out for
+recess, with eager question about Snipe, but the youngster impatiently
+shook him off and shot away, light of foot as he was heavy of heart, and
+the eyes of the others followed him as he turned into Twenty-fourth
+Street, for all seemed to know he was using his half-hour to speed to
+the Lawrences' for news of Snipe. Before the bell recalled them he was
+back, mournfully shaking his head, and they trooped up-stairs,
+low-voiced and disconsolate, Hoover slinking in alone, last of all, his
+hands in his pockets, his shoulders hunched, his eyes flitting nervously
+about. All through the half-hour the talk had been as to the possible
+cause of Snipe's mysterious withdrawal from the school and later and
+more mysterious disappearance. Everybody felt that John, the janitor,
+could tell something, even if it were only a lie--or a pack of lies, for
+John's veracity was a thing held up to scorn at the end of a hair. But
+John kept under the wing of some teacher and could not and would not be
+approached, and John looked white and scared. The Doctor came at the
+usual time, made the usual impressive pause at the doorway, pointed, as
+usual, to the usual foot of the class, who blinked and shifted rather
+more than ever. Then Pop removed his hat and strode with his usual
+deliberation to the closet, hung it on its peg, produced his gold-rimmed
+spectacles, and, as usual, wiped the glasses with his spotless cambric
+handkerchief as he looked over the notes and letters on his desk, while
+in subdued, half-hearted way the recitation went on. Then, with only a
+glance along the line of young faces, all studying him and none
+regarding Halsey, who at the moment had little Beekman on the rack, he
+signalled to Shorty, and the boy sprang to his side.
+
+"Hear anything?" he asked, in undertone, as though he needed not to be
+told that Shorty had gone to inquire.
+
+"No news, sir," said Loquax, with lips that twitched alarmingly. "Mrs.
+Lawrence will be here right after school."
+
+"Then you stay. I may need you," said the Doctor, and pointed to the
+bench.
+
+Five minutes later, after rapidly reading the brief missives on his
+desk, the Doctor arose, signalled to Hoover, ushered him into the
+lead-colored closet, followed and shut the door, from which quarter of
+an hour later Hoover emerged, as has been said, looking limp and
+woe-begone, and the moment school was over slunk away homeward without a
+word. By this time the First Latin was half mad with mingled curiosity
+and concern, when an elegantly dressed woman, followed by a manservant
+with a compact little parcel under his arm, appeared at the Fourth
+Avenue entrance, where the group still lingered, waiting for Shorty, and
+the whisper went round that it was Mrs. Lawrence, Snipe's aunt. The
+excitement rose to fever heat. Doremus and Satterlee, scouting about the
+avenue an hour later, declared that she had been crying when she came
+forth again and walked away to Twenty-fourth Street. Friday came. Shorty
+was ten minutes late at first recitation and failed in every lesson, yet
+not a word of rebuke came from any one of the masters. Halsey merely
+inclined his dark head, and with a tinge of sympathy in his tone,
+wherein they had long known only cutting sarcasm or stern admonition,
+said, "Never mind going further to-day." At recess, again, the boy
+bounded away to the Lawrences' and came back five minutes late, with
+face as hopeless as before, but he bore a note, which he laid upon the
+Doctor's desk, and without a word accepted the "ten marks off" for his
+delay, which at any other time would have caused a storm of protest. Pop
+arrived three minutes ahead of time, saw at a glance that little Pythias
+was down near the foot of the class, and made not the faintest allusion
+to it. He had barely taken his seat and looked over the two or three
+notes when a heavy tread was heard upon the stair, and despite Halsey's
+efforts the recitation hung fire, and every boy stared as a tall,
+grim-visaged, angular man of middle age stepped within the door, and in
+another moment was clasping hands with the Doctor, who left his dais to
+greet him. There was a brief, low-toned exchange of words, then Halsey
+and the new-comer caught each other's eye, despite the former's effort
+to stick to his work, and, faintly flushing, Halsey arose, and they too
+shook hands.
+
+"How have they done to-day, Mr. Halsey?" promptly queried the Doctor;
+and as nobody had done well or behaved ill, Halsey hesitated. He could
+not dissemble. Pop saw the hitch and cut the Gordian knot.
+
+"Gentlemen of the First Latin," he said, "the school is honored by a
+visit from one of Columbia's most distinguished alumni. Shall we give
+him an exhibition performance in the Anabasis or--take half holiday?"
+
+The class would rather stay but not exhibit; and so in five minutes the
+decks are clear, and, next to Beekman, the shortest boy in the highest
+class is being presented to the tall graduate. Before the name was
+mentioned he knew that it must be Lawton's step-father, Mr. Park.
+
+First there has to be another conference of some ten minutes' duration
+between the Doctor and his visitor, who had taken the youngster's hand
+and looked down into his anxious face with solemn, speculative eyes and
+without the ghost of a smile. Shorty feels his soul welling up in
+mightier sympathy with Snipe. There is not a thing in Park's manner to
+invite a boy's trust or confidence. Then the two turn to Shorty, and he
+is summoned to rejoin them.
+
+"The Doctor tells me you have been my--er--young Lawton's most intimate
+friend,--that most of his hours out of school have been spent with you.
+I had heard as much before through his mother and his aunt, whom I
+believe you know,--Mrs. Lawrence."
+
+The boy looks up, unspeaking, his blue eyes clouded. It needs but faint
+encouragement, as a rule, to relax his tongue; but neither in word nor
+manner does he find encouragement here. He looks, and his gaze is
+fearless, if not a little defiant, but he answers never a word.
+
+"What I wish to know is something of your haunts, occupations, etc. We
+supposed that when in your company and in the home of such eminent
+persons as your grandparents our boy would be safe."
+
+Shorty reddens. Many a time when Snipe would have studied he has coaxed
+him out for a run afar down-town, a visit to some bell tower or some
+famous fire company, where they were never without kindly welcome.
+
+"I gather," continues Park, "from what has been told me at his aunt's,
+that your associates were not always of the better class of boys."
+
+Shorty turns redder still. Many a time when he would have been glad to
+spend an evening at the home of Joy or Beekman, Doremus or Satterlee,
+Snipe had held back. "You go," he said: "I'll stay here and read," and
+it wasn't long before Shorty fully understood the reason. Snipe could
+not bear to go in such shabby attire, but he had no better, and could
+get none without importuning his mother. No one in the houses of the
+fire department looked or said critical things about his clothes. Snipe
+was just as welcome as Shorty, and the rough fellows of the red shirts
+seemed to enjoy explaining everything about the different styles of
+engines and all the intricacies of their running rules to the brown-eyed
+boy, who seemed to ponder over what he was told and to remember
+everything. And so it had resulted that whenever a cold or rainy
+Saturday came round and they couldn't play ball, big Damon and little
+Pythias had spent many an hour going from one engine-or hose-house to
+another, studying the different "machines," learning to know the foremen
+or leaders of the rival companies, and often climbing to the tall
+perches of the bell towers and gazing out through the watcher's long
+glass over the far-spreading city, the smoky shores of Jersey or Long
+Island, the thicket of masts bordering the rivers, and the distant
+glimmering bay. It was all of vivid interest. True, they heard language
+that was eminently unclassical. They penetrated into sections of the
+great city where the fashionable garments of their wealthier schoolmates
+would have become the target for the satire of the saloons and the
+missiles of the street Arabs. They saw and heard all manner of things at
+which Aunt Lawrence would have shrunk in dismay, and concerning which
+Shorty's own people were sometimes apprehensive. But as neither boy
+cared to imitate the language or the manners thus discovered, it was
+held that no great harm resulted. That they might have been far better
+employed every right-thinking moralist will doubtless declare, and that
+they would have been better employed even Snipe, down in the bottom of
+his heart, would have admitted--but for his clothes. It is astonishing
+how much one's garb has to do with one's goodness, even among
+school-boys.
+
+And all this was passing through Shorty's mind as the steely blue eyes
+of Mr. Park were searching his flushing face, and more things, too. With
+all her ambition and moderate wealth, Mrs. Lawrence occupied a social
+position just a plane below that on which moved Shorty's kith and kin.
+Beautiful old homes on the lower avenue and around Washington Square
+where they were welcome knew not Mrs. Lawrence. She had encouraged,
+unquestioning, Snipe's growing intimacy with his little friend, because
+it "brought the families together," as she once gushingly explained to
+Shorty's favorite aunt, and, as she confided to her husband, might lead
+to even more. Much, therefore, did she question Snipe as to what took
+place at table, in the parlor and music-room of the big household in
+Fourteenth Street, and, in the engrossing interest she felt in the
+doings of certain of its elder inmates, lost all thought of those of the
+boys themselves. Not until within the past few days had she been
+required to give an account of her stewardship, and now the butler's
+revelations, gathered mainly, as he stated, from market conferences with
+the magnate who presided over the board at Shorty's, had filled her with
+dismay.
+
+"Them boys, ma'am," was that dignitary's comprehensive summing up, "do
+be seeing the worst society in New York, 'stead of rejoicin' in the
+best--with their relatives."
+
+"You do not answer," at last says Park. "Could you find no better way of
+spending your play hours than going around among low firemen?"
+
+"We spent 'em at base ball when the weather was good," says Shorty,
+shortly, and there is glowing temper in the tone which the Doctor knows
+of old, and he sees it is time to interpose.
+
+"I have never said anything to you about this, my young friend," says
+he, "because I found that your relatives knew all about it, and thought
+you capable of keeping out of trouble; but I did not know Lawton was so
+often with you. What Mr. Park wishes to know is why you spent so much
+time among the firemen and so little among your classmates?"
+
+Shorty turns to the Doctor fearlessly. Him he knows and trusts. Twice
+for boyish misdemeanors has the great teacher bidden him take his books
+and leave the school, and both times has he reinstated him, as he had
+others, within twelve hours. "I don't care for these Sammy-go-softly
+boys," he had confided to Shorty. "I don't mind a little fun, but it
+must not take the form of impertinence to teachers or disobedience of
+their orders. If they are unjust, I'll straighten it out myself, but
+don't you try." Like most of the boys in the First Latin, Shorty knows
+he has the Doctor's sympathy and friendship, and so the answer comes
+pat. "The reason was because he had no money and was ashamed of his
+clothes."
+
+Mr. Park is severely judicial. School-boy impetuosity must not be
+permitted to ruffle him. With great dignity he begins,--
+
+"I do not approve of young lads having unlimited pocket-money or
+fashionable clothes, much less so in the case of a lad who must make his
+own way in the world, as George will have to do."
+
+"That's what Snipe said," was Shorty's quick reply. "Most of the class
+have both, however; and as he had neither and I only a little, we
+couldn't keep up with the crowd, so we spent our time together."
+
+"I am amazed that your grandparents should approve of such pernicious
+association for so young a lad as you," says Park, shifting the point of
+attack, for he feels that a revelation is imminent, and doesn't care to
+have the rector know how little he gave and how much he demanded. But it
+is bad fencing, for Shorty "disengages" with equal skill and follows
+with a palpable hit. Ignoring Park's comment, he faces the Doctor again.
+
+"You know, sir, that there isn't another boy in the class has to get his
+boots and gloves and pay his way on fifty cents a week." And Pop,
+inwardly convulsed, feels compelled to reprove.
+
+"Tut, tut!" he says. "These are matters for parents and guardians to
+settle. Little boys must hold their tongues." And when Pop means to be
+especially crushing he "little boys" the First Latin.
+
+"Any proper and necessary expense incurred by George would have been
+promptly allowed," says Park, loftily, "had he seen fit to confide in me
+or in his mother."
+
+"He _couldn't_ tell his mother, even when he was nearly barefoot,"
+blurts out Shorty. "She wrote him last year she'd rather sell her watch
+than ask you for money for him!" And now Park, too, reddens, for he
+realizes that the statement is probably true. Hastily he returns to the
+charge. This boy knows and talks too much. It isn't safe to allow him
+the floor. Pop turns away, with evidences of earthquake-like
+disturbances underneath that silken waistcoat.
+
+"Then this is the excuse," says Park, severely, "for his resorting to
+pawnbrokers--with stolen property."
+
+And Shorty bursts out indignantly, "He never stole a thing, or sold it
+either!" And now his eyes look pleadingly to the Doctor as though to
+say, "You know this can't be so! Why do you let him lie?"
+
+And as though to answer the appeal and come to the rescue of a maligned
+and beloved pupil, Pop turns instantly, every sign of merriment gone.
+
+"Surely you are misinformed, Park," he says. "There was nothing but some
+last year's books and his father's old shotgun. He told us everything."
+
+"He didn't tell you everything," answers Park, with emphasis. "How much
+of this is due to evil associations you can judge better than I; but
+look here," and from a bulging pocket of his overcoat he produces a
+package wrapped in a red silk handkerchief. A minute later and he lays
+upon the desk Seymour's handsome gold pencil-case, an old-fashioned
+watch and chain, such as women wore twenty years earlier, and some
+cameo earrings, with breastpin to match. "These," says he, solemnly,
+"were recovered this morning. They represent only a small portion of
+what his aunt, his benefactress, has found to be missing from her box of
+disused trinkets and heirlooms. The boy was shrewd enough to confine his
+stealings to things that wouldn't have been missed for weeks or months,
+perhaps, had not a faithful domestic's suspicions been aroused. This
+will be a sore blow to his poor mother. It has almost prostrated his
+aunt, and I dare say we don't begin to know the worst. Has nothing been
+missed by his classmates here at school?"
+
+There are beads of sweat on the Doctor's pale forehead as he turns away,
+Joy's watch instantly occurring to him. As for Shorty, in distress and
+consternation, mingled with vehement unbelief, for once in his life he
+is dumb.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+Another week began. Pop's boys gathered on Monday morning, and the first
+question on every lip was for Snipe, and all in vain. He had disappeared
+as from the face of the earth. Shorty looked an inch shorter and several
+pounds lighter. His chatter was silenced, his young heart heavy as lead.
+He had had two miserable days, and there were more before him. He had
+been closely questioned, both at home and at the Lawrences', over and
+over again, as to all their haunts and habits, which he and poor Snipe
+had shared in their leisure hours, and stoutly he maintained that never
+had Snipe entered a pawnshop while they were together,--never had he
+mentioned such a thing. The one piece of information he could give, that
+went to confirm the suspicions attaching to the missing boy, was that
+during the three weeks previous to his disappearance George had seemed
+to have much more money than usual. He had ordered a new pair of shoes,
+had bought some collars and neckties, had "stood treat" two or three
+times, and had got Shorty to go with him to a great clothier's, much
+affected by the school, to try on some overcoats. He had totally
+outgrown the one he brought from home two years previous, and was going
+without one, and seemed divided in his mind whether to buy a new one for
+winter or a new suit of clothes. Another thing Shorty had to tell was
+that of late Snipe had missed several evenings when Shorty expected him,
+or had come very late and said he had been of an errand. Of course, it
+was now apparent to poor Mrs. Lawrence that her nephew's suddenly
+discovered crimes were all due to her intrusting him entirely to Shorty
+and his kindred, and Mr. Park was oracularly severe in his comments on
+youthful depravity of so glaring a character that it could be satisfied
+with no association less disreputable than that of the rowdies of the
+fire department. He went so far as to make some such assertion to
+Shorty's uncle, who was called into a conference, and this was lucky for
+Shorty,--one of the few lucky things that happened to him that sorrowful
+winter. Ordinarily he would doubtless have been made the recipient of
+several lectures of the same tenor as Mr. Park's, only less radical, but
+the moment Park ventured to assert that his step-son had been led
+astray, and that Shorty's kindred had shut their eyes to the boys'
+misdoings and let them go their wicked ways, he stirred up the whole
+tribe and put them on the defensive. Uncles and aunts might even have
+thought somewhat as did Park, but not after he laid his accusation at
+their door. Shorty submitted his whole cabinet of possessions to prove
+that nothing of his was missing, except one pair of gold sleeve-links,
+which he had lent Snipe, and gladly lent him. "If Snipe ever stole, why
+didn't he steal my watch?" he chokingly asked. "It was as good as Joy's,
+and hadn't any name on it, as his had, and he could have sold it
+easier." All the evidence in creation couldn't make that butt-headed boy
+believe that Snipe was a thief. What he probably _had_ stolen, since
+they were missing from his room, were his school-books of previous
+years, a set of Marryat's novels that had belonged to his father, and
+his father's old shotgun, which he had brought to New York with him, and
+had no use for whatever. Perhaps he was thinking, poor fellow, of
+selling his father's old watch, a bulky, yellow "turnip," too big for
+him to wear, in order to get the money to buy those sorely needed
+clothes. Shorty well remembered Snipe's story of how his mother cried
+during that summer's vacation because she could give him so little when
+he needed so much; but Park's dominion was absolute. "That boy must
+learn the value of money," he constantly said. "He must know as I knew
+what it is to plan and contrive to make five cents do the work of
+twenty-five. _Then_ he may amount to something." Park said the boy's
+clothes were better than he wore in his school-days, when he had to
+sweep shop and make the fires and sleep in an attic, without a curtain
+to his window or a rag to the floor. Shorty began to realize at last how
+great must have been Snipe's temptations, and still he wouldn't believe
+he stole. Even the sight of Seymour's pencil failed to convince
+him,--even the fact that Snipe had certainly run away, if indeed he had
+not made away with himself.
+
+But in the class there was gloom and sadness almost equal to Shorty's,
+and by Monday noon all the story was out and much besides. Nothing could
+exceed the virtuous amaze of Briggs. He always had suspected Lawton,
+"but you fellows would not believe." Nothing more sardonic than Hoover's
+grinning face could be imagined. His blinking eyes seemed fairly to snap
+with comfort over the contemplation of Lawton's turpitude. By this time
+it was being asserted that Snipe had stolen his aunt's diamonds, Joy's
+watch, and every missing item, big or little, that had disappeared
+during the three years of his membership in the school. John, the
+janitor, was overhauled, questioned and cross-questioned. He dodged,
+parried, broke away, but by implication confessed that he found out that
+Lawton was going to a certain pawnshop on Third Avenue, and had been
+there two or three times within the previous month. Park paid the school
+another visit that afternoon and had brief conference with the Doctor,
+looked steadily and with stern disapproval at poor Shorty, sitting
+midway down the line and drifting gradually towards the foot. The First
+Latin took Park's measure, as they had Meeker's, and disapproved of him.
+They wondered would he attempt to address them. If he did, not one
+applauding hand could there be, except Briggs's or possibly Hoover's, if
+he referred to Snipe's to-be-expected fall. Snipe might have fallen, but
+if ever a boy was pushed and driven over a precipice he was, said they,
+and, take them by and large, the First Latin would have gone out of
+their way to shake hands with Snipe or to avoid shaking hands with his
+step-father. Park left before school closed, but to Joy's request of the
+Doctor, in the name of the class, for news of Snipe, the answer was
+given that they still had nothing authentic, though they thought they
+had a clue. He had once spent a month with some kinsfolk of his poor
+mother's in Pennsylvania, and Park opined that he would presently be
+heard of there, where his peculations, he might hope, had not yet become
+known.
+
+There were half a dozen of the boys walking together down the avenue
+that afternoon, Shorty in their midst. They were plying him with
+questions and conjectures. No, he was not going to the Lawrences', he
+said. He would never, probably, go there again. No, he hadn't been
+around among the engine-houses. He didn't at all believe in Snipe's
+guilt, and wouldn't believe he was hiding on that account. How did he
+account for Seymour's pencil? He couldn't account for it. All he could
+say was, that he'd bet anything he owned that Snipe wasn't a thief, and
+some day they'd find it out, and find out who was. It so happened that
+Briggs had gone on ahead with Hoover, the two lads with their heads
+close together in eager conference, but at Eighteenth Street he held
+back and stood waiting for the little knot of excited boys. Bertram and
+Joy were of the lot, tall young fellows on whose upper lips the down was
+sprouting and who on Sundays went to church in their first tophats. They
+were the elders, the senate of the school, and at sight of Briggs they
+muttered malediction and cautioned silence.
+
+"Say, Shorty!" cried the pachyderm, as Pop had named him, "twice last
+week I went to your house and asked for you, and the man said you
+weren't home. You were up in your room with Snipe Lawton, and I know it.
+I watched, and saw you come out with him half an hour later. What you
+'fraid of? Think I was policeman with a search-warrant?"
+
+The little fellow's blue eyes blazed up, but Bertram grabbed him and Joy
+turned savagely on the leering tormentor. "Shut up! you sneaking whelp!"
+he cried, "or I'll smash you here and now!" And glaring and red-faced in
+his wrath, Joy looked fully capable of doing it.
+
+"Why, what have I done?" sneered Briggs. "He's the fellow that stood by
+the thief that's been robbing us right and left, and didn't dare let his
+own classmate come up in his room."
+
+"You used to ring the bell and bolt up there the moment the door was
+opened, you cad!" answered Joy, "just as you did at my house and others
+until orders had to be given not to let you in. Get out of the way! No
+one in this party wants to be seen in the same street with you."
+
+"Oh, all right," snarled Briggs. "If you want to run with thieves and
+pickpockets you're welcome. I don't."
+
+But now there was a crash on the broad flagstones as the red-labelled,
+calf-bound, tightly-strapped volumes of Virgil and Xenophon went
+spinning to the curb, and, wrenching himself free from Bertram's
+relaxing grasp, Shorty flew at Sandy Briggs like a bull terrier at some
+marauding hound. Quick, alert, active, the surest-footed boy in the
+school, there was no dodging his spring. The whack of the leather on the
+flagging was echoed on the instant by the biff-bapp of two knotty fists,
+and Briggs reeled back before the sudden storm and tumbled into the
+gutter. Instantly the others threw themselves on Shorty or between the
+two. Briggs bounded up in a fury, the blood streaming from his nose,
+rage and blasphemy rushing from his swelling lips. He was ready enough
+to fight a boy so much smaller, and disdained Julian's prompt proffer of
+himself as Shorty's substitute. A policeman at the Everett corner came
+sprinting across at sight of the swift-gathering crowd. Joy and Julian
+saw him, and grabbing Briggs, darted with him down the stairway to the
+Clarendon's barber-shop. Bertram, Beekman, and Gray snatched up Shorty
+and Shorty's books and fled with him eastward towards Lexington Avenue.
+The row was over as quick as it began, but not, alas! the results. "I'll
+pay that blackguardly little cur for this,--you'll see if I don't!"
+shrieked Briggs at his captors, and they all knew that even as he could
+dissemble, that fellow could hate.
+
+Late that afternoon the Doctor sat in the midst of his books and
+manuscripts in the solemn library, the sanctum in which he rarely
+permitted himself to be disturbed, yet he lifted his massive head and
+listened eagerly as a servant entered with a message.
+
+"Send him right in here," said he, throwing down his pen, and the words
+were hardly out of his mouth when in came Shorty, bounding, breathless,
+excited, and with snapping eyes. "Ha, lad! So you've heard from Lawton!
+What does he say?" And trembling, rejoicing, triumphing, yet troubled,
+the youngster read from a letter in his hand.
+
+     DEAR SHORTY,--I couldn't stand it. I had to go, and, please
+     God, I'll never come back, only I want you to know the reason
+     and you won't blame me much. I begged Halsey not to tell the
+     Doctor or anybody what that low sneak of a janitor told him.
+     It's no disgrace to be so poor that a fellow has to pawn his
+     old books and things to get shoes, and you know how I was
+     fixed; you know that I was on my bare feet, almost, and that my
+     clothes wouldn't cover me. I couldn't ask a penny of Aunt
+     Lawrence, and they didn't seem to see or care how I looked. I
+     couldn't worry mother any more, so what _was_ there to do? They
+     gave me a shilling apiece for the school-books, and then I took
+     over my Marryats--I hadn't even read some of 'em--and got
+     twenty cents apiece, and finally father's old shotgun. It was
+     mine; mother had given it to me. It was no use to me. Why
+     shouldn't I sell it and buy clothes? I didn't know it was so
+     costly and valuable, but Aunt Lawrence says now it was worth
+     one hundred and fifty dollars. It came from London. I thought I
+     was lucky to get seven dollars for it. Of course old Binny saw
+     me one night ["Binny is the butler," explained Shorty. "He
+     hated both of us, I suppose, having to answer door so
+     much,--Aunt Lawrence wouldn't let Snipe have a key"], and I
+     guess he must have sneaked after me; but when Halsey told me it
+     was known I visited the pawnbroker's (it wasn't a pawnbroker's.
+     It was just a second-hand store), and demanded to know what I'd
+     sold, and talked of the disgrace and all that, and hinted
+     things about Joy's watch and other missing items I never even
+     heard of, I told him the whole thing, and begged him not to
+     make trouble for me,--I had enough. But he said the Doctor must
+     know, and the Doctor sent me round with him and I showed him
+     the shop, and he rowed the man in charge and said my aunt must
+     be told at once. You never heard such a row as she made,--the
+     shame and the disgrace I'd brought on them all. She could never
+     show her face in society again. Selling my father's books! my
+     father's beautiful gun, that my poor mother had so proudly
+     intrusted to me! Why, Shorty, she drove me nearly mad. Even
+     Halsey tried to stop her after a while, and to say it didn't
+     begin to be as bad as she made it, but she ordered me to my
+     room, and then came up and jawed until I was near crazy, and
+     then when she'd talked herself out up comes Cousin Maud, and
+     she just belched fire and brimstone for an hour; and after
+     dinner that night Uncle Lawrence,--why, he never so much as
+     noticed me generally, and you know how he used to pass us on
+     the street and never see us,--he went on at a perfectly
+     infernal rate. I was an ingrate and a thief and a consorter
+     with the lowest order of humanity (rough on _you_ that was,
+     Shorty), and when he got through I'm blessed if they didn't
+     wind up by sending my little cousin, Queenie,--I always liked
+     her,--but she went on and preached about disgrace and shame
+     just like Aunt Lawrence, and how good they'd all been to me,
+     and how shocking was my ingratitude! She supposed I spent the
+     money in liquor and cigars for my rowdy friends (I did stand
+     treat to milk and custard pie as much as twice); and then Aunt
+     Lawrence comes up again, and read me what she'd written to
+     mother, and that was the last pound. I had five dollars left
+     that I was saving for some clothes, and planning to sell the
+     old watch and get the rest of the money I needed, but she took
+     that away, lest I should steal that too, she said, and I was to
+     be sent back to Rhinebeck as soon as mother could be heard
+     from. She'd been to the Doctor and told him I don't know what,
+     and came back and said the Doctor and teachers as much as
+     declared they thought me the thief that stole Joy's watch. She
+     told me to go and say good-by to you and confess everything,
+     but I shall never disgrace the home where I was so kindly
+     welcomed by setting foot inside its doors again. I've started
+     out for myself, Shorty, dear old boy, and I'll make a living,
+     never you fear, and I'll write to you sometimes when I can do
+     so without being followed or found out. Don't let the fellows
+     think too mean of me. Here's the one thing I've got to confess,
+     and you tell it to Seymour. I found his pencil under the fourth
+     bench that afternoon Beach kept me in two hours for welting
+     Beekman with a putty-ball, and instead of giving it to Beach,
+     as the rule is, I stuck it in my pocket and never thought of it
+     again until next morning, just as I got to school and saw
+     Seymour. I hunted in my pocket and it was gone. I ran home at
+     recess and hunted everywhere, and asked the girl who makes
+     believe do up my room, but couldn't find a trace of it. That
+     was two weeks ago, and all this time I've been hoping to find
+     it, or when I got the money on the watch to buy him another and
+     tell him the whole story. Now I can't do either.
+
+     Good-by, Shorty, dear old fellow! Say good-by to Bonner and
+     Hank and Keating and Joe Hutton. Forty's boys were always kind
+     to us, weren't they? And if any of the class feel that I am not
+     altogether a disgrace to them, give them a bit of love, from
+     yours till death.
+                                                           SNIPE.
+
+[Illustration: "I couldn't stand it. I had to go."]
+
+The little reader was almost sobbing when he got through, but the Doctor
+was on his feet and listening in undisguised interest and sympathy.
+
+"But that pencil was found among those things Mr. Park brought to the
+school!" he exclaimed. Then, as a sudden light seemed to flash over the
+case, he took the missive in his big, white hand and pored over the last
+two of its many pages. "You have shown this to----?" he began.
+
+"Nobody, sir. Nobody was at home. I brought it right to you."
+
+"Then leave it with me and say nothing about it till I tell you. I will
+see your grandfather to-morrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+A week later the First Latin was divided against itself,--a most unusual
+thing. That it generally despised Hoover and hated Briggs was an old
+story. These two of the twenty-seven had long been excluded from the
+fellowship of the twenty-five; but that twenty-five was now reduced to
+twenty-four by the loss of Snipe, and the twenty-four was split, much to
+the comfort of the two outsiders. A grievous burden had been imposed on
+Shorty when the Doctor bade him tell no one about Snipe's letter,--that
+he had good reason and desired to investigate on his own account. Shorty
+couldn't listen to an insinuation of any kind against his chum, and
+there were members of the class who now couldn't help entertaining
+suspicion and saying so. Shorty's intentions of observing the Doctor's
+caution were of the best, but indignation would find vent, and so would
+the boy nature that impelled him to say that he had information when
+Snipe's accusers had not. Then he had to lose a point and admit that
+his knowledge was of such a character that it must be kept concealed
+awhile, which statement many of the class decided to accept, but not a
+few to deride. Turner was one of the latter, and at recess one day
+openly taunted Shorty with professing what he couldn't prove. Briggs was
+on the outskirts of the knot of excited lads at the first sign of
+trouble. He was still raging in his heart against Shorty because of the
+stinging blows that sent him reeling into the gutter the previous Friday
+afternoon. Here was a chance for vicarious vengeance. Shorty was half a
+head smaller than his long-armed accuser. Briggs knew that Joy, Julian,
+any of the bigger members of the class, would pounce on him if he dared
+lay hand on the "little 'un," but Turner was nearer the youngster's
+weight. Those were the days when Heenan and Sayers were the models of
+the fistic art, when Charlier's boys at Wood's gymnasium or Pop's at
+Ottignon's were accustomed to putting on the gloves with the master, and
+school affairs were settled in the neighboring stable after the manner
+of Tom Brown and Slogger Williams in "School-Days at Rugby." Cooler
+heads in the little crowd counselled peace and strove to stem the angry
+torrent of words between the boys. Even Turner himself, seeing Shorty's
+rage, would probably have been willing to take back what he had said,
+but Briggs had other plans. Stooping underneath the elbows of the boys
+at Turner's back, he suddenly straightened up, giving Turner a powerful
+shove that sent him lunging against his fuming little antagonist, and
+like a flash came the first blow, the counter, an instant's clinch, and
+then, as the boys broke away, two stinging whacks before the elders
+could interpose. "Come round to the stable and finish it!" yelled
+Shorty, in his fury. "Come on yourself!" shouted Turner; and, despite
+the pleadings of those who hated to see class harmony destroyed, away
+went the excited crowd, Hoover and Briggs leering and grinning after
+them, while John, the janitor, bolted miserably up-stairs to give
+warning to Othello, who had determined there should be no more
+stable-fights, and who came breathless into the arena just as the
+combatants had shed their coats and collars and, with clinched fists and
+flashing eyes, were facing each other for business. The ring broke and
+scattered pell-mell at sound of Halsey's voice, but the principals were
+caught. Recess was ordered suspended. The bell summoned the class
+in-doors, and, in sullen silence, slowly the boys obeyed. Shorty's
+prominent nose had suffered in the preliminary skirmish, and he had to
+go and stanch the blood. Turner, scowling, was sent to the foot of the
+class, where Hoover welcomed him with a malignant grin, and there, along
+its accustomed line, sat the First Latin in gloom and despond, while the
+head-master penned brief memoranda of the circumstance. Everybody felt
+there would be tragedy when the Doctor came. "The next boys I hear of as
+fighting around school," he had said the week before, "I'll pack 'em
+home to their parents." And yet the First Latin had reason to believe
+the Doctor had nothing but disdain for boys who quarrelled and called
+names and perhaps cuffed, scratched, or kicked, and couldn't or wouldn't
+fight "fair and square." Only a few months before, just at the close of
+the school-year, when the twenty-seven were still the Second Latin,
+there had been a laughable scuffle between two big, lanky lads in the
+senior class. Full ten minutes had they clinched, wrestled, slapped, and
+sparred in the vestibule, many of the Second Latin looking--and
+egging--on and indulging in satirical comment, until Beach swooped upon
+the surging crowd and ordered DeForest and Dominick, the principals, to
+their benches. The classes recited together then in Latin Prosody, a
+Second Latin boy many a time "taking a fall" out of the First and
+getting the head of the combined array. There was no love lost between
+the two. Pop was unquestionably partial to the juniors, and had frequent
+occasion to torment the seniors with satire over the fact that the
+youngsters knew better Latin, if not more, than did the other class. He
+listened to Beach's report of the affair with frowning brows, until it
+transpired that full ten minutes were consumed before the combatants
+were separated. Then his broad features expanded in a smile of
+amusement. "What!" he exclaimed, as he studied the crestfallen faces of
+the culprits. "Ten minutes' battling and not a scratch to show for it!
+Scandalous! _Et tunc pugnabant pugnis_---- Hold! Young gentlemen,
+there's a capital start on a fine, sonorous line, dactylic hexameter.
+Half-holiday to the class that first completes it! Half-holiday except
+to those wielders of the wind-stuffed cestus. Set your wits to work--and
+your pencils." With that he seated himself in his chair of state, his
+fine cambric handkerchief came forth to mop his glowing face, and, still
+chuckling with suppressed merriment, the massive rector looked down
+along the crowded ranks of his boys, forty-five in all, and then he
+wiped his gold-rimmed spectacles and laid them on his desk, and then
+little Beekman darted up to his side, a scrap of paper in his hand, and
+gave it hopefully to the magnate in the chair. The Doctor glanced over
+it, shook his head, and frowned. "No, no," said he. "What we want is
+sound and sense combined. You've only got the sound, like the blows of
+our gladiators. There's nothing behind them. The words mean nothing.
+Mark the rhythm and majesty of mine. _Et tunc--pugna--bant pug_---- All
+spondaic. And then--they were--fighting--with fists---- Come, come,
+gentlemen, that line needs appropriate close. Ha! the versatile Second
+Latin again tenders a contribution!" and the big Doctor took the next
+youngster's slate, leaned back in his chair, read, a beaming light shot
+into his eyes; then the eyes closed, the massive head fell back, the
+capacious waistcoat began to heave and shake from internal convulsion,
+and the whole array of boys looked up expectant. For a full minute Pop
+lay back in his big chair in solitary enjoyment of his fun, and at last,
+bubbling over with merriment, he straightened up and began, "Listen,
+young gentlemen of the First Latin, to the satire of the Second.
+Triumph, gentlemen of the Second, in the victory of your laureate.
+
+     '_Et tunc pugnabant pugnis sine sanguine nasi._'
+
+"And then they were fighting with fists (full ten minutes understood)
+and not a drop of blood was drawn from the nose. Poetic license set at
+naught! Stern facts related! Half-holiday to the Second Latin! Take your
+books and go rejoicing! Gentlemen of the vanquished First, remain where
+you are."
+
+That episode widened the breach between the classes and strengthened the
+conviction that Pop was "down on" bloodless encounters. Pop was
+thorough, argued the boys. He wanted no quarrelling, but if quarrels
+came, they were soonest ended when fought to a finish on the spot.
+
+And so despite the frown on Halsey's dark face most of the First Latin
+hoped that when the Doctor came he would look with leniency on the
+misconduct of the belligerents. Hoover, defrauded of his smoke, pleaded
+for permission to go to Duncan's to get his fine silk handkerchief,
+which he claimed to have dropped during their brief ten minutes of
+recess. This was killing two birds with one stone. He needed his
+cigarette, and he hoped to create the impression that he was not among
+the crowd at the stable. There had been a solemn conference between the
+Doctor and Hoover senior, and solemn warning to the young man on part of
+both, and Hoover junior felt that he could risk nothing with the rector
+in his present frame of mind. The head-master, with doubtful glance in
+his eyes, said go, and not three minutes later wished he hadn't. There
+was a sound of angry altercation below-stairs. John's whining voice was
+uplifted in protestation. At any other time the class would have had fun
+out of it, but the class was in no mood for frolic now.
+
+"Stop that noise and come up here at once!" ordered the master from the
+head of the stairs, and sullen and swollen-faced, the janitor came.
+
+"I couldn't help it, sir," he began at once. "I ain't going to be cursed
+for obeying orders by any such sneak as that."
+
+And when Halsey could check the angry torrent of his words, it
+transpired that Hoover had taken occasion, with much blasphemy and bad
+language, to abuse him for having told about the fight. Hoover came in
+ten minutes later, glancing shiftingly around. "Say, did that cur tell
+on me?" he whispered to Turner, as he sidled into his seat, and Turner
+turned his back and bade him go to Halifax, but Briggs nodded yes. It is
+an ill wind that blows nobody good. The Doctor came with gloom in his
+eye and thunder on his tongue. Things had been going amiss. Not another
+word had been heard of Snipe. A favorite pupil had disappeared because
+of troubles brought to light at school, and the Doctor felt that his
+system, his methods, his discipline and supervision were all being
+challenged and dissected by his rivals and opponents, and, like every
+successful man, he was the target for the shafts of all the envious. A
+high authority at faculty meeting that day had demanded news of the
+missing boy and particulars as to the causes of his going, had intimated
+that such things ought not to be in a well-regulated school, and the
+rector came down ruffled and wrathful. The first thing to attract his
+eyes was the sight of Shorty sitting ruefully on the "mourners' bench,"
+as the boys called the settee at the foot of the class. Hoover, Turner,
+and Briggs were the other occupants.
+
+"Hiyee!" he exclaimed, as he halted at the doorway. "The lad of the long
+tongue has let it run away with him again, I suppose! What's he been
+saying, Mr. Halsey?"
+
+"Nothing, sir," said Halsey, briefly. "Fighting again."
+
+"What! And after my prohibition! Here, you, sir!" he exclaimed, with
+indignation in his tone. "Take your books and pack yourself out of
+school, at once!"
+
+Slowly Shorty found his legs and, uttering no word, went drearily to the
+bookcase, obeying the pointing, menacing cane in the rector's hand, and
+trembling and with heavily beating heart began to gather and strap his
+few possessions. For a moment there was dead silence. Pop still
+standing at the doorway, glaring at the culprit, perhaps wishing the boy
+would speak. But Shorty's spirits were crushed by the sorrows of the
+past ten days, and he didn't much care what happened. It was Bertram who
+broke the silence.
+
+"May I say a word, sir?" he asked, as he rose respectfully.
+
+"Not unless you wish to quit the school the same way, sir. Young people
+will speak when spoken to and not before. Come, you, sir," he continued,
+turning again on Shorty, "I am waiting for you to go."
+
+"So'm I, sir," said the youngster, desperately, "but I can't--till you
+get out of the way."
+
+For an instant the silence was intense. The Doctor stared, then dropped
+his threatening cane, closed his eyes and began to shake. In another
+instant the room rang with a shout of laughter, even the saturnine
+features of Halsey relaxing in a grin.
+
+"Who's the other belligerent, Mr. Halsey?" asked Pop, as soon as he
+could regain severity of mien. "The illustrious Turner, I apprehend.
+What did you wish to say, Bertram?"
+
+"Nothing, sir, in view of the penalty," was the prompt answer.
+
+"It wasn't his fault, I suppose you wish to imply," said the Doctor. "Go
+back to the bench, sir," was his stern order to Shorty. "Remain after
+school, both of you, until I investigate this and send you home with a
+letter apiece. Any other enormities to report, Mr. Halsey?"
+
+"Yes, sir,--Hoover. The janitor says that he cursed and abused him at
+recess for obeying your orders."
+
+The Doctor's face had mellowed a moment before; now it hardened. He
+stood with his cane tucked under his arm, his top-hat in one hand, the
+polishing handkerchief in the other, flicking away the dust and
+smoothing the glossy crown. Foul language on part of boy or man was
+something he abhorred, and Hoover had been reported more than once. For
+John, the janitor, the Doctor had but faint regard. He was a blundering
+booby, said he. But that in no wise relieved Hoover. Watching his
+angering face, the silent boys could almost foretell the words they saw
+framing on his compressed lips. "Out of my school, sir," were beyond
+doubt the first he would have spoken, but there sat two other culprits
+who deserved the temporary expulsion that was at the time his favorite
+method of punishment. If Hoover went, they too must go, or Hoover senior
+would hear and ask the reason, and the Doctor hated to be
+cross-questioned about his school. His methods were his own; one might
+almost say the boys were too.
+
+"Using blasphemous and profane language again!" he finally began, as he
+stood and glared at the scowling pupil. "Gentlemen never abuse a servant
+for obeying orders. Gentlemen avoid the use of profanity. We must have a
+new name,--a more descriptive title for our _monstrum horrendum_, our
+roaring Polyphemus. What say you, Bertram, Imperator? What say you, Joy?
+Come, wake your nimble wits, young gentlemen. The astute head of the
+class is silent, the second is dumb, the third sits mute," and now the
+great but shapely white hand, with its taper index, points to one after
+another, "the fourth, the fifth, the sixth. What? Have we no wits left
+to-day? You, Beekman; you, Satterlee; the iconoclastic Bagshot, the
+epicurean Doremus" (a titter now, for Doremus's taste for cream-puffs is
+proverbial). Speak up, Van Sandtvoordt. Gihon, Post, Dix, Bliss,
+Seymour, Grayson, next, next, next; the late belligerent Mr. Turner, the
+benignant Briggs, Hoover we'll skip, and now the other gladiator,
+Loquax. _What?_"
+
+"Polyblasphemous!" says Shorty, with twitching lips, the Irish in him
+coming to the top despite his weight of woe.
+
+An instant of silence, then, shaking from head to foot, the tears fairly
+starting from his eyes, unable for the moment to speak at all, laughing
+himself to the verge of apoplexy, the Doctor motions the youngster from
+the foot to the head of the class, and it is a full minute before order
+is restored and the laughter of the First Latin subsides. Even then,
+every little while some boy bursts out into a chuckle of merriment, and
+Hoover glares at him with new malevolence. Every little while the Doctor
+settles back in his chair and shakes anew. That _jeu d'esprit_ saves
+three culprits from deserved suspension and brings sunshine through the
+storm-clouds for the day at least. But it thickens the hide of Hoover's
+hate.
+
+"You think you were smart this afternoon" (with an adjective to the
+smart), sneers Hoover to the youngster after school. "You'll find out
+where the smart comes in before you're a month older, young feller."
+
+And Hoover means it.
+
+[Illustration: She was permitted to read and to weep over Snipe's
+pathetic letter.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Another month had come and not another word from Snipe. All the Doctor's
+explorations were in vain. There was grief at the Lawrences', for the
+poor mother had been visiting her sister, imploring full particulars in
+one minute and denouncing her informants in the next. The most yielding
+and self-forgetful of women ordinarily, she had risen in rebellion
+against those whom she believed had wronged her boy. There was a rupture
+at Rhinebeck, where George Lawton's step-father was given to understand
+by George Lawton's mother that she would never believe that her boy had
+stolen. That he had sold the books and the gun and might have sold the
+watch was probably true. He had to do it to buy even the coarsest
+clothes to hide his nakedness. She had come to Shorty's home, and, with
+that sad-hearted youngster as her guide, had been conducted to the
+Doctor's study, and there she was permitted to read and to weep over
+Snipe's pathetic letter. She drew from Shorty all the details of the
+boy's effort to get along on his scanty allowance, to spare her, and to
+make his worn shoes and shabby, outgrown garments answer for another
+year. The interview between the now roused and indignant woman and her
+husband on her return to Rhinebeck must have been a source of amaze to
+him as well as discomfiture. In forty-eight hours she was back at Mrs.
+Lawrence's. "Do not put yourself out for me any more than you did for
+George," she said to her sister, with a tinge of irrepressible
+bitterness. "I will sleep in his little hall bedroom and sit at his
+corner of your table--when you are not entertaining." And Mrs. Lawrence
+made no reply. She knew well there had been much to warrant the mother's
+accusation. George might indeed be the culprit her husband, her
+brother-in-law, and her butler asserted, but he might not, probably
+would not, have been but for the indifference or neglect which had been
+his portion. Down at the bottom of her heart Aunt Lawrence was a
+sympathetic woman, and not entirely unjust, for after the first few days
+of excitement, at which times those at fault are sure to strive to fix
+the blame on others, she realized that what she had said of George's
+playmate and his people, even of George's misguided methods of spending
+his recreation hours, was something she would gladly recall.
+
+But all this time the search for the absent boy had gone on
+unremittingly. Shorty had promised faithfully that if another letter
+came from Snipe he would bring it to the mother at once, and Pop had
+given his sanction. He refused to promise to come every day to see her,
+as she had at first almost demanded. He told her frankly that after what
+Mrs. Lawrence had said of him and his leading George astray, he couldn't
+come. The Doctor had certain theories about the missing jewelry, and
+had, on his own account, employed detective aid, and abandoned his
+theory more perplexed than ever. Privately he let it be known to the
+police that he would pay a handsome reward for the recovery of Joy's
+watch and information that would lead to the apprehension of the thief,
+but not a trace of it had been found. School work had to be kept up, but
+Shorty's standing suffered. The weekly reports that so often bore in
+Pop's remarkable chirography the word "_Imperator_," in Halsey's big,
+round hand the inscription "_Nulli Secundus_," and over the sign manuals
+of the other teachers some tribute to his scholarship and industry, now
+spoke of him as "falling off," "losing ground," etc., and a gentle hand
+was laid on his troubled head at home ere it signed the receipt, and
+kind and sympathetic words would send him hurrying away to his own
+little den, there to give way to a passion of tears. It was bad enough
+to lose Snipe. It was cruel to think of the boy's loneliness and
+suffering, but it was getting to be worst of all at school, where, true
+to the old, old saying, the absent was sure to be wrong. Little by
+little sneer, rumor, and insinuation had done their work, and, with no
+one to defend but Shorty, Snipe's name had become clouded with suspicion
+that was verging into certainty. If innocent of all the misdeeds laid at
+his door, why had he run away? Why did he not come home to face his
+accusers?
+
+And so it happened that Shorty saw less of his schoolmates and more of
+his and Snipe's old friends, the firemen, than ever before. At home this
+was looked upon as decidedly unfortunate, but the lad was so unhappy and
+restless that no active opposition was made. "No good can ever come from
+such association," said the one oracular and dogmatic member of the
+household. But that prophecy was destined to be put to the blush.
+
+Quarter day had come at Pop's,--a day marked in the annals of the school
+and celebrated in its traditions. More stories centred on that momentous
+date than on all the other school-days combined. On the Friday of the
+last week of the expiring quarter each of the Doctor's pupils would be
+handed an envelope addressed to his responsible parent or guardian, and
+each envelope so addressed contained the school bill for the ensuing
+quarter, filled out in the Doctor's unique and dainty hand. No writing
+was ever like it. Pop had a system of penmanship, as he had of
+punishment, of instruction, and school discipline, peculiarly his own.
+His capital letters were always large, clear, and well formed. His small
+letters, except those extending above and below the line, were indicated
+by tiny, back-handed dashes that individually conveyed no idea and
+collectively were unmistakable. Not a word of instruction accompanied
+the presentation of the missive, but every boy knew infallibly what to
+expect. From time immemorial in the history of the school the unwritten
+law had been that every boy appearing with the cash or check in payment
+of the bill early on the following Monday morning might go his way on
+whole holiday. If the money came on Tuesday the bearer was released at
+twelve o'clock; but if it failed to come on Wednesday the pupil found
+himself drifting from one scrape into another until it did come, and old
+boys used to declare that pretexts were never lacking, when they were of
+the school, to warrant the Doctor in flogging, every day until the money
+came, the hapless lad whose parents failed to meet the demand on time.
+Small wonder that Pop's boys developed phenomenal powers as bill
+collectors and that Pop himself had no dunning letters to write.
+
+The late autumn had given way to early winter, sharp and frosty. A great
+presidential election had been held some weeks before. The East was
+excited and the South enraged over the victory of a far Western
+candidate, almost unknown to Gotham. Rumors more and more alarming of
+Southern force and fury flew from lip to lip as November drew to its
+close, and December, frosty but kindly, was ushered in. The boys had
+separated Friday afternoon, taking the bills with them, and early Monday
+morning Othello sat "for such occasions only" at the Doctor's desk, in
+readiness to receipt for checks or cash before the opening hours of
+school. A dozen at least of the First Latin had gleefully gone their
+way. Another dozen, less fortunate, lolled dejectedly on the benches,
+devoutly wishing their _paters_ were as well to do as those of the
+holiday-makers (which many were, but held to a theory that Pop found too
+many excuses for holidays). Shorty was neither with one nor the other.
+Nine o'clock came and two of the First Latin had not reported; Hoover
+was the other. The bell rang. Beach was told off to put the supposedly
+derelict through their paces in Sallust, while Halsey went on signing
+receipts, shoving money into the drawer, and saying, "You may go,"
+briefly as possible, to the boys who came provided. The rule held good
+for the entire school, and by quarter-past nine the rector's drawer was
+stored with something over a thousand dollars in checks, bank-notes, and
+coin. It was fully half-past nine when Hoover came slowly and sullenly
+up the stairs and entered the room. Briggs, sitting at the foot of the
+incarcerated dozen, jocularly hailed him with, "Hullo! for once in his
+life Hoover won't have to sit on the mourners' bench."
+
+"Go there yourself, sir!" said Beach, sternly, bringing Briggs instantly
+to his feet with whining expostulation. "Why, what did I say, sir?" And
+it takes more fines and much frowning to settle him, Othello never
+interposing, for this money taking and changing is his bane. He has to
+do it in the Doctor's absence, but he hates it. He counts over every
+penny slowly and carefully, for the rector requires account to the
+uttermost farthing, and small boys waiting for their receipt fidget
+impatiently.
+
+Hoover, mean time, is removing coat, gloves, and muffler with
+exaggerated deliberation, and seizes the opportunity when Beach turns to
+the head with a question, and while the stove-pipe hides Othello's eyes,
+to administer a fervent kick to Briggs and send that sandy-haired young
+fellow's Sallust flying to mid-floor, Briggs, of course, lending
+unnecessary and additional centrifugal impetus to his belongings, and in
+the midst of the acrimonious debate that follows a bounding step is
+heard on the stair and in comes Shorty, flushed, panting a bit, and
+filled with suppressed excitement and evident importance. He squeezes in
+between Hoover and the rack to hang up his top-coat, Hoover swaying
+backward, of course, to make it as difficult and disagreeable a process
+as possible.
+
+"Come out of that, Hoover, and take your seat," orders Beach, sternly.
+But "Polyblasphemous" is ugly and rebellious. Not until Shorty has a
+second time squeezed by is Hoover made to obey. Even then he turns back
+and rummages among the coat pockets, claiming that he has left his
+handkerchief therein. Hoover's handkerchief, like charity, is made to
+cover a multitude of sins. He feels in a dozen pockets, apparently,
+before he finds it. So engrossed is the class, or what is left of it, in
+the effort to bring order out of chaos at the foot of the room--and
+Hoover from among the overcoats--that few see that Shorty has handed
+Othello a note before silently taking his seat. Hoover is presently
+settled below Briggs, fined five marks for being late and another five
+for trifling, and the recitation goes on, Beach evidently ruffled. Then
+Othello looks up and beckons to Shorty, who silently goes to his side.
+
+"When did the Doctor give you this?" he asks, in low tone; but now the
+boys are still as mice and listening intently.
+
+"Just at nine, sir, up at his house. I caught him going up to college
+and gave him the letter, and he turned back and wrote that." Shorty
+never could explain a thing in few words.
+
+There is a sound as of shouting and excitement on the avenue above the
+school and of swift-running feet, but at the moment no attention is
+paid. "The Doctor says you are to have whole holiday," continues Halsey,
+in his monotonous tones. The noise without is increasing.
+
+"I--don't care to go, sir," says Shorty, hesitating, and the class looks
+up in astonishment. The noise has spread to the rooms to the east,--the
+nursery,--where the small boys are; a banging of windows and shades, a
+rush of many feet, and all of a sudden the leaden-colored door flies
+open and Meeker appears, pale and excited.
+
+"Mr. Halsey!" he cries, "a house right back of us is all in a blaze.
+Shall I dismiss my class?"
+
+"Wait a moment," answers the head-master, ever deliberate, and away he
+goes, long striding, the First Latin, despite Beach's effort, tearing
+after him. Then Beach follows the tide. The house in flames is not just
+back of them, but near enough to prove a source of tremendous interest
+and excitement, if not of danger. It faces on Twenty-fifth Street, just
+beyond the stable, and backs up into the grape-vined, fence-crossed
+rectangle at the back. Smoke in thick volumes is pouring out of the back
+windows. A tongue of flame licks out under the narrow gallery at the
+rear of the main floor as Halsey forces his way through a mob of
+shouting small boys to the open window. The First Latin comes tumbling
+after him, shoving Meeker aside. Borne on the breath of the rising east
+wind, a single, solemn "bong" of the Twenty-third Street tower tells
+that the watcher has quickly descried the unusual smoke-cloud billowing
+up from the doomed dwelling. People in adjoining houses are throwing
+open blinds and shouting unintelligible things. Boys and men come
+clambering over fences from adjoining yards. Cooks and housemaids gather
+on back galleries, huddling together with shawls over their heads and
+red arms wrapped in flimsy aprons. A pile of bedding comes hurtling down
+through the smoke from a third-story window, followed by a lot of
+books. Somebody has fetched a ladder, and a dozen boys and men have
+scrambled to the tar and pebble roof of the stable, and there they dance
+and shout and run hither and yon, but still no firemen appear. The
+nearest hook and ladder company "lies" seven blocks away. The school is
+down at the foot of the First (fire) District. The jangling bells of 61
+Hose can be heard coming on the jump down the avenue, and every boy
+knows Pacific Engine can't be a block behind. But now the "hot black
+breath" rushing from the basement and first-floor windows bursts all at
+once into furious red flames, and Halsey says resignedly, "School's
+dismissed till the fire's out." The boys go tumbling over each other's
+heels in mad dash for the door, and the thunder of feet, as they go
+leaping down the narrow stairway, shakes and scandalizes the watchmakers
+in the little shop below, and Mr. Foley, rushing out at the first boy he
+can lay hands on, shakes him in turn until, amazed and wrathful, the
+young fellow breaks loose, whirls about, and lands a stunning
+left-and-right full in Foley's angry face, and turns it even redder,
+while every other big boy springs to the aid of "28," just lowering her
+long side levers and "taking the butt" from "61," while two or three
+stalwart, black-helmeted fellows dart up the brownstone steps and into
+the smoke-vomiting doorway, glistening pipe in hand, the copper-riveted,
+black leather hose trailing behind them. Before the water gushes from
+the corner hydrant and swells the snake-like coils that connect with the
+engine, the pipemen come reeling out before the jetting flames, and
+everybody knows that that fire will burn itself out and not succumb to
+water. In their haste, many lads have left their overcoats on the rack,
+and from the midst of these emerges Hoover, twisting the silken muffler
+about his throat, the only pupil left in the main school room, as Halsey
+suddenly recollects himself--and the cash in the Doctor's drawer--and
+comes hurrying back to that abandoned desk. The drawer is half-way open,
+the checks and bank-notes seem undisturbed, but Halsey knows there were
+a number of ten-dollar gold pieces in the lot, and now there isn't one.
+Long before that lively blaze is out and only bare burned walls are left
+standing, the Doctor himself arrives upon the scene, and the
+head-master, with rueful face, reports himself about one hundred dollars
+short.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+When the order "Take up" was finally given that afternoon to the array
+of fire companies that covered the first and second fire districts, most
+of Pop's boys were still among the swarm of spectators. The fire had
+broken out soon after nine o'clock, and not until one were some of the
+companies sent home. Under the system existing in those days every
+engine, hose, and hook and ladder company whose station was north of
+Twenty-second or south of Sixtieth Street had had to answer that
+alarm,--old "Black Joke," Engine Company 33, having to drag their heavy
+"Carson" machine all the way from the neighborhood of Fifty-ninth Street
+and Broadway. There was nothing left of the house in which the fire
+started, and neighboring buildings were badly scorched in places and
+more or less damaged by water. There were no "chemicals" then. The
+stable had been in danger several times, and Pop's boys had performed
+prodigies of valor early in the affair, leading out the affrighted
+horses and wheeling buggies and wagons into the street. The cars on
+Fourth Avenue had to stop for over an hour, so numerous were the lines
+of hose, and both that avenue and Twenty-fifth Street and the roofs and
+windows of adjoining buildings were thronged with lookers-on. The Doctor
+was much displeased on his arrival to find his back windows occupied on
+both floors by total strangers, who made themselves perfectly at home
+and couldn't be induced to leave by any intimation of the janitor that
+the principal would like to close up. The Doctor was more than
+displeased when he heard from Halsey of the filching of the gold. No
+pupil saw that interview. A few of the smaller boys were at the back
+widows, but only John noted the two in their grave consultation, and he
+was promptly ordered to leave the room, and could only guess what was
+going on until the following day. As the firemen stretched their
+drag-ropes and started for home Halsey suggested summoning the boys back
+to their seats and studies, but Pop said no,--it was too late in the
+day. He wished to think, and, tucking the cash and checks in an inside
+pocket and his cane under his arm, leaving Halsey to see to the closing
+up of the rooms, the Doctor went slowly down-stairs and out upon the
+crowded street. He had had to thread his way through the jam at
+Twenty-fifth Street, and wanted no more of that. A line of hose
+stretched along the sidewalk from the hydrant at the corner below, and
+he looked upon it with stern and scholastic disapproval, but followed
+its lead and came upon a familiar face. It being a "neighborhood" fire,
+the Metamora Hose had run over from Fifth Avenue and Twenty-first
+Street, being almost as soon upon the scene as 61. Taking the hydrant at
+Twenty-fourth Street, her men had unreeled up the avenue and around the
+stable, giving their "butt" to Lexington 7, who, with their big
+double-decker, came speeding over from Third Avenue. And now the
+prettily painted hose carriage was drawn up close to the curb at
+Twenty-fourth Street, and half a dozen young fellows were lolling about
+the wheels and tongue, smoking and talking loudly, with much exaggerated
+imitation of the Bowery dialect of the day. But the slangy, swaggering
+talk came to sudden stop. Two cigars, at least, were tossed or dropped
+into the flooded gutters, and two or three hats were lifted as Hoover,
+Briggs, and a "horsey" young man, whose specialties were cock-fights and
+"canine sports," suddenly recognized the Doctor. With grave dignity Pop
+lifted his beaver, and his stern eyes gazed in disapprobation upon the
+party. He knew the others, as he did his own black sheep, at a glance.
+There were the Hulkers, the flashiest of New York youths, the objects of
+his especial dislike. He had known their father, a worthy man despite
+his swiftly acquired wealth, and the boys, too, had spent six months
+within the Doctor's walls before the death of that lamented financier.
+But a doting mother had long since withdrawn them from the tyranny and
+oppression to which her beloved sons were there subjected. The Doctor
+had his regular habits and his regular route. No boy there had ever
+known him to turn southward from his school door before this day, and
+his coming suddenly upon them was a shock so severe that it dashed for
+the moment even Briggs's effrontery. Hoover turned a sickly yellow, and
+looked as though he would have been glad to crawl under the hose
+carriage. Briggs "made a sneak" to get the reel between him and the
+Doctor's glowering eyes, but Pop halted short and stood with pointed
+cane, and Briggs saw it was useless and crawled out again. "Smoking!"
+said the rector, comprehending the sextette in general condemnation.
+"Idling! Wasting the substance of honest men in forbidden and stolen
+indulgence. Here, you, sir!" to Briggs, "get you gone out of this. Go
+home and study, and if you miss a line of to-morrow's lessons I'll pack
+you out of school." "Pack" as a verb and "copious" as an adjective were
+pets in the rector's school vocabulary. "The same to you, my horsey
+young friend, Mr. Brodrick. As for you," he continued, addressing the
+Hulkers and their companion, who, with hands in pockets and hats tipped
+back, were striving to keep up appearance of bravado, "I shall reach you
+through another channel." Then, his manner suddenly changing, he turned
+on Hoover, now blinking and sidling away through the quickly gathering
+knot of inquisitive folk. "Hoover, come with me," he said, and Hoover,
+who looked as though he would give a year of his life to get out of the
+way, meekly slunk along at the Doctor's side.
+
+Majestically the rector strode across the street and went on southward,
+vouchsafing no word to the culprit on his left. There were still curious
+knots of loungers along the avenue. One or two companies were manning
+the brakes in Twenty-fourth Street, the hose of their engines being
+carried through the basements of the red brick houses to the rear of the
+wrecked premises. Furtively Briggs and Brodrick watched the pair until
+lost to sight, all but the Doctor's hat, in the throngs along the walk.
+Then an anxious, nervous glance was exchanged, and Brodrick whispered to
+his freckle-faced schoolmate. "What's he heard, d'you s'pose?" was his
+query.
+
+"We'd better look up 61 and see what the other fellows know," said
+Briggs, in low tone, while the Hulkers, now that the rector was well
+away, resumed their loud laughter. "You go, Brod; I can't show up in
+that crowd just now." The memory of the assault on Snipe was still fresh
+in the minds of some of the lads. Very possibly it was this that held
+the Hulkers and their henchmen so far away from the fire itself and from
+the spot where, over a block away, 61's white hose-reel and silver lamps
+could be seen above the crowd. Even now that shame and suspicion
+attached to George Lawton's name, those fellows, lately his accusers, if
+not indeed his active assailants, felt it unsafe to venture among a lot
+of the First Latin.
+
+Brodrick peered up the street and shook his head. "Not if the court
+knows herself," he said, with the Bowery drawl; then, turning to Hulker,
+"Sa-ay, Skinny, gimme 'nother seegar." But the Hulker apostrophized as
+"Skinny" declined.
+
+"You've cleaned me out of the last one. Go buy some if you want 'em."
+
+"I ain't got a dime. Hope to drop dead next minute if I have. Sa-ay,
+lend me five dollars till Christmas on that watch-chain?" he pleaded,
+lifting a clumsy production from a waistcoat-pocket. But the next minute
+he thrust it back in haste and confusion. Beach, with observing eye,
+came sweeping down upon them. "Mr. Halsey wishes to see you both at
+once," said he, with scant ceremony. "Lose no time," and, though the
+message filled them both with uneasiness, neither dare disregard it.
+
+Halsey sat at the old table as they slunk into the school-room. Two or
+three First Latin men and Second Latin boys were grouped about him;
+John, the janitor, was dodging about the door. Every boy in the number
+had on his overcoat, but at least half a dozen others had left theirs
+hanging on the rack.
+
+"Yes, sir, I know whose they are," Doremus was saying. "There's
+Beekman's, and there's Bagshot's, and that's Prime's, and those are
+Second Latin coats," he added, with proper indifference to the infant
+garments. Halsey thought a moment.
+
+"They must still be somewhere about," he said, tentatively, as Briggs
+and Brodrick ranged up behind the smaller lads. "Where's Hoover?" he
+questioned. "He was with you a moment ago."
+
+"Gone with the Doctor, sir," said Briggs, glad enough to have no harder
+question to answer.
+
+A long hook-and-ladder truck that had been standing for some hours in
+front of the school was being reloaded with its ladders, and its gong
+was sounding to recall scattered members of the company. Some small boys
+had tiptoed to the window to feast their eyes on the unaccustomed sight.
+"There's some of our fellows over by 61's Hose now, sir," piped a
+junior, and John was bidden to go and again summon all stragglers into
+school. Ringing of his bell had only resulted in derisive comment among
+the firemen. Some company just starting for home was receiving the
+customary "hi, hi" of the hangers-on about the other machines, and
+John's mandates produced no immediate effect. At last, however, the boys
+came straggling up in knots of two or three, and presently perhaps a
+dozen were added to the group about the master's table. He was listening
+rather absently to the excited talk. No less than six or eight of the
+youngsters had personally rescued as many horses apiece, despite the
+fact that there never were more than twenty of those quadrupeds, all
+told, in the adjoining stable. Halsey made Briggs repeat his statement
+as to Hoover and seemed disappointed. "Is this all you can find?" he
+finally said to the janitor, and John declared it was.
+
+"Didn't you tell me Prime was down there, somewhere?" asked Halsey of
+Doremus.
+
+"He's sure to be, sir. His coat's here yet."
+
+So again the janitor was sent forth, and again came back to say he could
+see nothing of the lad, and at last the master decided to keep the
+others no longer. Bagshot took his coat and left. There were only two
+remaining on the rack when the usual hour for closing school drew nigh.
+The occupants of the rear windows by this time had satisfied their
+curiosity and departed, and John had been ordered to keep the doors
+closed and to admit no more. For some reason Halsey seemed to hang on to
+Briggs to the very last, and he and Brodrick were still fretting about
+the benches, awaiting the master's permission to retire and glancing
+apprehensively at each other from time to time.
+
+At last Halsey beckoned them to his side.
+
+"Where were you when the class followed me into the other room?" asked
+he of Briggs.
+
+"_With_ 'em, sir!" said Briggs, with eagerness. "Wasn't I, Brodrick? We
+were among the first to follow."
+
+"Yes, sir," asseverated Brodrick as positively. "We chased right in
+after you."
+
+"How long did you stay in there?" asked Halsey. "I'm told you were among
+the first to bolt down-stairs--before school was dismissed."
+
+"A minute or two, anyhow," declared Briggs. "I thought school was
+dismissed or I wouldn't 'a' run."
+
+"Did the whole class follow? Did any remain?" he asked, searching the
+anxious features before him. He and Beach had already talked this over
+among themselves. John, too, had been examined, but further testimony
+was needed. Briggs reflected.
+
+"Hoover was there, sir, and Shorty Prime."
+
+"When you came out, do you mean?"
+
+"Ye-ye-yes, sir. 't least Prime was. I didn't see Hoover."
+
+"Where was Prime? Are you sure he was there?"
+
+"Right up at the Doctor's desk, sir, where you were sitting."
+
+"He was there still when you came out?"
+
+"Ye-yes, sir. Wasn't he, Brodrick?"
+
+Brodrick thought so, but couldn't be sure. He had "grabbed his cap and
+run." "They were all rushing down from the English department
+up-stairs."
+
+Halsey's dark face was very dark now. His eyes were full of doubt and
+dread. "I want you to be very careful of what you say, Briggs, and to
+say nothing to anybody of what you have said." And while they were still
+in conference steps were heard upon the stairs, and presently in came
+the two pony members of the First Latin, Prime and Beekman, and Prime
+was a sight to behold.
+
+"What on earth have you been doing with yourself?" queried Halsey, as he
+half turned and looked the youngster over from head to foot. Shorty's
+clothes were wet and bedraggled, his face smudged with soot, but his
+eyes sparkling with life and animation. He had not looked so much like
+his old self since Lawton's disappearance.
+
+"Had 28's pipe, sir, the last hour," said the boy, with a grin of pride.
+"They were only pumping easy to soak down the ruins, and their fellows
+were tired out and let me and Julian have it."
+
+"Where's Julian?"
+
+"Gone home, sir. He's wet through."
+
+"So are you, but--don't go just yet. That's all, you others," said
+Halsey, whereat the three slowly vanished, leaving only the janitor
+staring at the door.
+
+"Go out and shut that door, and keep it shut," said Halsey, shortly, to
+the open-mouthed servitor, and then he turned on the boy, now warming
+his hands at the big stove. "Prime," said he, "you were with me at the
+desk when that alarm came. What became of you? What did you do?"
+
+"I, sir? I went like a streak for 61."
+
+"At once, do you mean?--right after the class ran after me into Mr.
+Meeker's room?"
+
+"_Before_ the class ran after you," said Shorty, with an injured air. No
+fireman would waste so many valuable seconds. "I was down-stairs and
+out of the school before they were fairly off the benches."
+
+"How could you get your cap, sir?"
+
+"Didn't take it, sir! I ran bare-headed to Twenty-sixth Street, hoping
+to be the first to give 'em a still before I saw 'em coming."
+
+"Give them a still! What's that?"
+
+"A still alarm, sir. Give them a tip to the fire. But it must have been
+going some minutes. They were spinning down the avenue by the time I got
+half-way. Then I came back for my cap, and school was coming out."
+
+"Did you speak to any of them? What boys saw you coming back?" asked
+Halsey, thoughtfully.
+
+"Oh, I don't know, sir," answered the youngster. "Everybody was excited,
+I suppose, but me. I've always run to fires since I was knee-high. They
+were all shouting. You were just coming out of Mr. Meeker's room, and I
+nearly ran into you."
+
+"Do you mean you ran to Twenty-sixth Street and back in that time?"
+
+"_More_'n that, sir. I ran half-way to Twenty-seventh and out into the
+street and grabbed hold of 61's rope. There were only six or seven
+fellows on her, and I ran with 'em to the corner hydrant."
+
+Something of the master's trouble was now reflecting in the pupil's
+face. Something in the minuteness of Halsey's questioning suggested
+graver trouble. "I hope nothing's wrong, sir," said Prime, anxiously.
+"I know I oughtn't to have run when I did without permission, but--we
+don't have a fire next door every day."
+
+Halsey rose and placed the long, lean hand on the little fellow's
+shoulder. Two years and more he had known him. He and "Tut" had given
+him the first touches in Latin and Greek, and, as head-master, Halsey
+had had many an occasion to reprove or reprimand, for high spirits or
+mischief led to many a scrape, yet there was kindness, there was even a
+touch of tenderness, in the master's tone as he answered.
+
+"Perhaps you ought not to have run when you did," said he, "but, as it
+is, I'm thankful."
+
+And Shorty could have sworn Othello's swarthy hand was trembling.
+
+Two minutes later the master had taken the names of two of 61's men who
+were on the rope when Shorty joined them. Then, bidding him say nothing
+of this conversation to any schoolmate until after the Doctor's coming
+on the morrow, Halsey bade him hurry home and get a rub-down and dry
+clothes. As Shorty turned to the rack for his overcoat a sudden thought
+struck the master.
+
+"Where was the letter written--Lawton's letter--that you took to the
+Doctor this morning?"
+
+"It didn't say, sir. It was postmarked Bridgeport, but--that don't prove
+anything. Somebody else could have put it in for him there."
+
+Jerking the overcoat from its peg and tossing it carelessly over his
+arm, something bright came spinning out of the pocket, bounded to the
+floor, and rolled in easy circle up in front of the master's table,
+where it struck a crack, spun on edge a second, and then settled with a
+metallic buzz and bur-r-r, and then lay still and shining opposite the
+middle bench. Halsey started and stared, with a gleam in his eyes.
+Shorty, surprised, sped after it, stooped and picked it up, then held it
+between his thumb and forefinger, gazing at it in astonishment. "Why,
+Mr. Halsey," he cried, "it's a ten-dollar gold piece!"
+
+"Yes," said Halsey, "I know. See if there are any more."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+When school reassembled the following day the First Latin knew to a man
+by nine o'clock that the cause of Shorty's "late" the previous day was a
+letter from Lawton. Warned by Jim Hulker that the rector had taken
+Hoover to the Clarendon, Briggs scouted miserably down the avenue on
+their trail, filled with no one knew what nervous apprehension of
+trouble to come, and, dodging in at the office a moment later,
+ascertained from a bell boy that they had gone into a parlor on the
+second floor. Briggs knew what that meant. The Doctor was
+cross-questioning his sullen pupil, and there were all manner of things
+Hoover might be driven into confessing if closely and scientifically
+pressed, and what might that not mean for Briggs? Not five minutes
+later, down they came, the Doctor erect, stately, and deliberate as
+ever, Hoover slinking wretchedly alongside. A carriage had been called,
+and into this Hoover was practically hustled by his preceptor, and
+together they were driven away towards Fourteenth Street, and Briggs
+was left behind. They were going to see Hoover's father, was the
+apparent explanation, and it boded ill. A ten-minute walk took Briggs
+over to the house of the Metamora. The hose carriage had just returned,
+and was being washed. The Hulkers had dropped off at a certain
+billiard-hall, said one of the firemen, and thither sped Briggs. It was
+a resort much frequented by certain of the Columbia students in those
+days, and there were a dozen or more scattered about the big room at the
+moment. Over in a corner, whispering together, were the two Hulkers with
+a brace of followers. Over against them, across the room,
+ostensibly--even ostentatiously--engaged in a game of billiards, were
+Joy and Julian, and all the little pluck that Briggs had left went
+oozing out of his finger-tips at the sight. Quickly he slunk back into
+the vestibule and crouched there, peering through the glazed doors,
+uncertain what to do. A bar-boy, coming up from below at the moment with
+cigars and mixed drinks on a tray, found him peering in through the
+crack, and knew him at once.
+
+"Sa-ay," whispered Briggs, the moment he discovered who had come. "Tell
+Mr. Hulker I want to speak to him out here a minute, will you?"
+
+The boy looked hard at him, made no reply, went deliberately in with his
+tray-load, deposited the glasses on little tables near the big ones,
+where a jovial party of Columbians were playing, collected his pay,
+counted it carefully over, then with exaggerated impudence of manner
+dawdled over to where the Hulker set were in eager conference in their
+corner, and said something to them. Briggs saw, and so did Joy and
+Julian, the backward toss of the head, the over-the-shoulder jerk of the
+thumb towards the entrance, saw the four young fellows start and glance
+questioningly thither; then presently, hands in pockets and head in air,
+Hulker major came sauntering out, just as Julian caught sight of a
+carroty head ducking behind the framework of the doorway.
+
+"There's that sneak Briggs now," he quickly whispered to his chum. "What
+are those fellows planning, do you s'pose?"
+
+There was a brief confabulation in the hallway without, and then back
+came Hulker,--no loitering now,--said a word or two to his fellows, and
+the four picked up their canes and overcoats and started for the door.
+The bar-boy went running after them.
+
+"I'll pay you to-morrow," Hulker major answered, impatiently; and Julian
+heard it. The boy was importunate, and glanced at the desk. The clerk
+came out from behind his barricade.
+
+"I'm sorry, Mr. Hulker, but the manager left strict orders that that
+account must be settled before you could be served again. You told the
+boy you would settle everything before you left, and to get those
+cigars. Now, I've got to take the money out of the till and pay for 'em
+if you don't."
+
+Angrily, and with ugly words, the elder Hulker turned on the clerk. "I
+haven't any money just now, I tell you. We've been at that fire all the
+morning. It's too late to get a check cashed. I'll bring you the money
+to-night, Billy, I'll swear to----"
+
+But the controversy was cut short by the sudden entrance of the manager
+himself. He was a man who prided himself on the "respectability" of his
+place. Order and decorum were things he insisted on. Even the mildest of
+sherry-cobblers, for which the bar was famous, was forbidden to the
+student or youth who showed the faintest symptom of over-stimulation.
+Case-hardened politicians and men about town avoided Martigny's, for the
+reason that they could never get enough there. Student trade was
+something he catered to only so long as it came through the well-bred
+and well-behaved of their number. The Hulker set he much disapproved of
+and had frequently cautioned, but money was an object, and for a time
+those young fellows had it and spent it in abundance. Of late there had
+come a change. Something had occurred to limit their supplies, and
+within a month they had run up bills at every neighboring bar or
+billiard-room where they could get credit, and now Martigny, after
+thrice presenting his account, had drawn the line. Quietly but firmly he
+told the elder that that bill must be settled then and there or it would
+be sent by a messenger to his mother at once. It was impossible for the
+players at the tables not to hear what was going on. There were sly
+winks and quizzical glances. Columbiads, old or young, fought shy of the
+Hulkers, but even they were unprepared for the scene that followed.
+
+"I haven't got a cent with me, Johnny," protested the elder, while the
+others crowded about in indignant chorus. "I swear I'll fetch it to you
+to-night, or in two hours, if you must have it."
+
+"You've sworn to the same effect twice before, Mr. Hulker," said the
+manager, calmly, "and I cannot trust you. I was down in the bar-room
+when your orders came for this round of drinks and cigars, and the boy
+declared that you showed him gold, and declared further that you'd
+settle the whole account. It's fourteen dollars and seventy-five cents,
+and I want that money now."
+
+"It ain't mine, Johnny. It was given me for a particular purpose,"
+protested Hulker. "That was just bluffing. I didn't think he'd take it
+in earnest."
+
+"But he did, Mr. Hulker, and so did I, and so will your mother when my
+messenger gets there ten minutes from now. Get your coat, Mr. Tracy," he
+said, turning to his assistant. "I'll send you around with the message.
+That's all, gentlemen. I won't detain you further than to say that you
+will not be allowed in this room hereafter."
+
+"Sa-ay, stop! Hold on!" cried Hulker. "Here, I'll--I'll pay it now. But
+of all the dash, dash, dashed mean----"
+
+"No bad language, Mr. Hulker," said Martigny, calmly. "A special
+policeman is at the door." He glanced at the coin tendered by the
+trembling hand of the leader. "Give Mr. Hulker five dollars and
+twenty-five cents," said he, calmly, to the desk. "There's a friend of
+yours peeking in at the door. You might inquire now what he wants." And
+with unruffled civility the manager led the way to the door, closed it
+after the crestfallen quartette, and came back thoughtfully chinking the
+coins, just as Joy and Julian, laying aside their cues, hurried to the
+desk to pay for their game.
+
+"Was that red-headed specimen there yet when you came up, Martigny?"
+asked Julian.
+
+"Yes, sir; but he scuttled away down-stairs as soon as he saw me. Who is
+he?"
+
+"One of the Hulker set, and none of ours," was the brief answer, as
+Julian's keen eyes took in the two coins Martigny was still mechanically
+passing back and forth from the fingers of one hand to the other.
+"Ten-dollar gold pieces," said he to Joy, as the two hurried down the
+stairs and out on the busy street. There, "scooting" along in the keen
+December wind, heads bowed and half hidden in high coat-collars, and
+huddling together, the discomfited quartette, reinforced at the corner
+by Briggs, were just turning to cross Broadway when a carriage came
+driving rapidly by. Seated therein, erect and majestic, was the Doctor,
+apparently lost in thought. By his side a pasty-faced young fellow,
+with flitting, beady black eyes, glanced furtively out and recognized
+his fellows, made some quick signal with the hand, waved it from the
+window, and pointed towards the northeast corner of Madison Square.
+
+"I'll bet I know what that means," said Julian, as the five halted,
+irresolute, and gazed after the carriage. "Pop's had him in limbo for
+over an hour, and the moment he gets out he wants those fellows to meet
+him. We could find something worth knowing, old man, if we could see
+them together again." But not until long after did Julian dream how
+much.
+
+The Doctor left Hoover at the steps of the brownstone mansion, saw him
+safely within-doors, summoned the grave butler to his carriage, said a
+few words in low tone, and was about to order "drive on," when he was
+aware of two young gentlemen running up, panting a bit and red in the
+face.
+
+"Ha, Joy! Julian!" he cried, as they raised their caps. "What brings you
+here?"
+
+"What news of Lawton, sir? Doremus just told us there was a letter." And
+to substantiate the story, Doremus himself came puffing after the pair.
+
+"Where'd you hear it?" asked the Doctor of the third youngster, desirous
+first of ascertaining where the leak occurred.
+
+"I was over at the school a few minutes ago. The janitor told me, and
+Mr. Halsey and Prime were just going away together."
+
+"Just going away together! Why, I supposed everybody had left the
+building an hour ago."
+
+"So did I, sir, but John said Mr. Halsey had kept Prime. He was having a
+long talk with him 'bout something, and John heard him say that now they
+had proof it wasn't Lawton that took Joy's watch, and that they'd have
+him back in less than a week."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Pop, now well-nigh as vehemently interested as his
+pupils. "Then you young gentlemen will be wise to go direct to your
+respective rooms and get to work on the lessons for to-morrow. It's
+almost dark now. Be off with you!" and, with exaggerated sternness, the
+cane was displayed.
+
+"But was it so, sir? Have you heard of Lawton?"
+
+"Yes," said the Doctor, instantly relapsing into the confidential manner
+known only to the boys he trusted and liked. "He writes that he had been
+ill, but is strong again, and we are going to try and fetch him back.
+Now, no more until to-morrow. Off to your books!"
+
+If John, the janitor, had not been in such a hurry to get home, he might
+have given out some news that would have surprised them, and that was
+that when Mr. Halsey and Shorty Prime left the school together they went
+up the avenue instead of down, and, of all places in Gotham, Halsey led
+straight to the house of 61 Hose. Out in front on the cobble-stones the
+dainty white Zephyr was being sponged off and rubbed dry by three or
+four red-shirted experts, who glanced up and grinned affably at "the
+little 'un" and looked critically but in no surprise at the master. A
+New York fireman of the late '50s thought it bad form to be unprepared
+for anything. "Here are two who can back up my statements," said the
+boy, with confident eyes, as he beckoned to the nearest member of the
+Zephyr. "Will you tell Mr. Halsey where I met you on the way to the fire
+this morning, and what we said?"
+
+The hoseman straightened up and squeezed the dirty water out of a huge
+sponge, shifted a quid in his cheek, thought a moment, and answered,
+"Why, cert'nly, Shorty; right down there opposite the Harlem depot. We'd
+hardly gone a block when I see this little fellow come a-running.
+'What's a-fire, Shorty?' says I. 'Big house next the stable,' says he.
+'Where's your cap?' says I. And he just kind a' nodded at the school as
+he grabbed the rope. You ain't going to do nothing to him for coming to
+give us a still on a fire, are you?" he asked, with something like
+menace in his eye.
+
+"No," said Halsey, with one of his rare smiles. "We're glad to know it.
+That'll do, Prime. Come on." And Halsey, who never wasted a second of
+time, touched his hat to the Zephyrs and went streaking off down the
+avenue again, the tails of his worn black frock-coat streaming in the
+breeze, Shorty, much disappointed because he wasn't called upon to
+produce further evidence of prowess as a fireman, skipping along after
+him. The lad's heart was bounding with excitement and joy. Another day,
+and if successful in the quest on which she had already started, Mrs.
+Park, George Lawton's mother, would have Snipe once more back in school,
+and his accusers would stand confounded. Not for days had Shorty seemed
+so like his old self, bright, buoyant, and chatting like a parrot, to
+the discomfiture of a most tolerant home circle.
+
+Morning came and all the school was early "on deck," and the news of
+Snipe went buzzing from lip to lip, and Briggs nervously flitted from
+group to group, swallowing snubs as though they were sugar. Meeker came
+wearily in, his pale face paler than ever, his eyes seeking Halsey, who
+glanced up and gravely shook his head, whereat the junior master made a
+despondent gesture with both hands and went on into his own room. Beach,
+his ruddy skin glowing with the exercise of a long, vigorous walk, swung
+out of his top-coat and into his seat as though lessons were to begin at
+the instant. He and Halsey merely exchanged nods. They were on
+civil--not confidential--terms. The janitor came and reached for the
+bell, lifted it by the handle from the table, and was turning with it
+when, unaccountably, it was jerked from his grasp and went clanging and
+clattering to the floor. The news of Snipe had restored heart to the
+First Latin, and as one boy the class turned on John in voluble
+sympathy. John dove for the bell, straightened up, and started anew,
+when there was a jerk to the table, a snap, and the little clapper of
+the bell shot half-way across the room. Turner dashed upon it and held
+it up to public view, a fine steel wire firmly attached to it and
+stretching to the leg of the table.
+
+"Awe, see here, Mr. Beach, any boy that would play such a trick as that
+ought to be packed out of school. I move you, sir, that it is the sense
+of the First Latin----"
+
+But Beach is in no mood for trifling. Bang! comes the heavy ruler on the
+desk. "To your seat!" he orders. "Ten marks off for Turner," and the
+class subsides, while John speeds away to borrow the bell from the shop
+below, and the master mentally calls the roll. "One absentee, Hoover,"
+he notes; instantly calls Bertram to his feet and begins the work of the
+day. Poor work it proves to be, for between yesterday's fire and the
+morning's tidings the First Latin has neglected its studies. Poorer it
+proves after ten o'clock, at which hour a policeman appears at the door
+and asks for the rector. Poorer still after a recess at twelve, at which
+time Mr. Hoover himself drives up in his carriage, Halsey comes down to
+meet him, and together they drive away. At any other time the fact that
+Halsey was away from his post at the reassembly after recess would lead
+to a riot, but the sight of the face of Hoover, _pater_, is more than
+enough for the class. "He looks like a ghost," says Bliss. "What's
+coming next?"
+
+Nothing came--ahead of the Doctor. At the usual moment he appeared, and
+as usual levelled his stick at the boy at the foot. "No
+message--telegraphic?" he asked of Beach, after brief glance at the
+missives on his desk. A shake of the head, an inaudible "no" framed by
+the lips were the answers. A look of grave concern spread over the
+Doctor's face. He glanced at his watch, turned to the window, then back
+to the door, for the rustle of skirts, most unusual sound, could be
+heard on the stairs. Another moment and there entered Mrs. Park, George
+Lawton's mother. She reached the chair the Doctor promptly placed for
+her, sank into it, limp and despairing, and burst into tears. "Doctor,
+Doctor!" she wailed. "My boy has not been near Bridgeport. I couldn't
+find a trace of him--or of any one who knew anything about him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+There was a change in the composition of the First Latin when the
+Christmas holidays came on, and the erstwhile "band of brothers" broke
+up for a fortnight of frolic at home. Hoover had not reappeared at
+school at all. He had been sent South to visit relatives in Mobile "for
+the benefit of his health," the rector said to the class, but there was
+no twinkle of merriment in his eye as he spoke, and no responsive laugh
+along the line of young faces. Strange interviews had occurred between
+the Doctor, Joy, and Julian, from which "the senate" came forth with
+sealed lips. Long conferences had taken place between the Doctor,
+Halsey, and Beach, and twice had Briggs been bidden to stay after
+school. "They wanted me to tell on lots of you fellows," was his
+explanation to the class. "Pop and Halsey tried to get me to tell where
+you spent your time and your money out of school, and threatened to
+dismiss me if I didn't." But the First Latin answered unanimously that
+Briggs was a liar. All the same they did wish they knew what was really
+the matter with Hoover. There was one lad who could have given a new
+direction to their theories had he not promised both the Doctor and
+Halsey to say nothing whatever about that ten-dollar gold piece, and a
+hard time he had keeping his word, and that was Shorty. Neither from the
+Doctor nor any one, until long after, did he learn nor did the school
+know that at least one hundred dollars had disappeared from the drawer
+of the Doctor's desk the eventful morning of the fire. Yet what made it
+strange was that rumors of such a thing had been heard, and they came
+from outside the school. Columbia students heard it whispered at
+Martigny's. Martigny himself admitted, when cornered, that he had had an
+interview with the rector at the residence of a gentleman in Madison
+Avenue, by request, but he would say no more. One thing was certain.
+None of the Hulker set reappeared at Martigny's. Another thing was
+announced, that Mrs. Hulker, who for the years that followed her
+husband's death had followed his example and consulted Hoover senior in
+all her investments, etc., had turned against that substantial citizen
+and was filling the ears of society with tales of his treachery, tales
+to which Mrs. Lawrence and her coterie listened with bated breath. Then,
+as has been said, the Hulker boys, too, went South, "visiting relatives
+in Savannah," and the widow followed a fortnight later. Ten days before
+Christmas, the so-called Hulker gang was without head, foot, or
+finances, both Hulker and Hoover having disappeared. There were "no more
+cakes and ale," no more cigars and tobacco for the few hangers-on about
+the quarters of Metamora Hose. But, after all, the matter over which
+Pop's boys talked and wondered most was: Where was Snipe Lawton and why
+did nothing further come from him?
+
+There was a mystery about the letter that had taken Shorty up to the
+Doctor's early that December morning and sent an eager, anxious,
+loving-hearted woman out on the New Haven Railway by the noon train. It
+had come by post to Shorty just as he was starting for school, and he
+had run first to the Lawrences' and then, after five minutes' eager,
+excited talk with Mrs. Park, nearly all the way to Murray Hill, and
+caught the Doctor on his customary tramp to college before he reached
+the reservoir. It was only a little note. It said that Snipe had been
+ill of some kind of fever, that he had found work and was feeling
+independent and happy, hoping soon to make enough to send five dollars
+to Seymour, when he was taken ill. Snipe thought he "must have been
+flighty a few days," but people had been very kind to him. He had helped
+two boys--his employer's sons--with their arithmetic every night until
+his prostration, and it had pleased their mother and father both, but he
+had let out something about his own mother, and now they were telling
+him how cruel he had been to her and how he ought to go back to her and
+put an end to her suffering. Snipe said he couldn't go back to
+Rhinebeck and wouldn't go back to Aunt Lawrence, but if Shorty would
+send the enclosed note to his mother she would know that he loved her
+and thought of her constantly; and then he asked Shorty to write to him
+how the boys were and whether they missed him, and what Seymour said.
+"Address your letter care Massasoit House, Bridgeport, and I'll get it
+safely, only don't tell anybody." And, instead of writing, Shorty had
+run to Pop and Pop had turned back with him, had sent notes by him to
+Mrs. Park and to Halsey, bidding the latter give Shorty whole holiday,
+which, to the astonishment of the school, he had declined.
+
+"Why did you do that?" Halsey had asked him during their memorable
+conference after the discovery of the gold in his overcoat-pocket, and
+Halsey was thinking how, unconsciously, the boy was weaving a strong
+thread in the net of suspicion that would have been thrown about him but
+for the lucky accident of the afternoon. "Beyond all question," said
+Halsey to himself and to the Doctor, "it was the intention of the thief
+to cast suspicion on Prime and divert it from himself," and there were
+just three lads, so far as Halsey could figure, who besides "Loquax"
+were in the room during his few minutes' absence, and had opportunity to
+rob that till,--Briggs, Hoover, and the janitor. The later discovery of
+the gold at Martigny's narrowed the number to Briggs and Hoover, with
+the chances in favor of the latter. And all these facts combined had
+led to that solemn conference between the Doctor and Hoover senior, and,
+despite all his protests of innocence, to the withdrawal of the
+ill-favored and unfortunate young fellow from the school. There was to
+be no scandal,--no allegation of crime. Pop would have dropped a
+thousand dollars rather than have it openly said that such things had
+happened among his boys. His own suspicions for months past had centred
+on his hulking, clumsy janitor, and for weeks the detectives had dogged
+and dogged in vain. What confounded and troubled the Doctor was young
+Hoover's vehement and persistent denial of guilt, and Hoover senior's
+prompt assertion that on the Saturday afternoon previous to quarter day,
+when giving his son the check for his school bill, he had also given him
+twenty-five dollars in gold and silver to pay certain debts the young
+man had confessed to him, and he was certain there were two ten-dollar
+pieces in the lot.
+
+Those were solemn days for the elder Hoover and rueful days for the son.
+There were conferences, crossexaminations, and almost inquisitions at
+the solemn old mansion, Pop, Halsey, Martigny (most unwillingly), and
+Beach taking part. But the boy stood firm to his first statement. He had
+had no more money from any source than that twenty-five dollars. He long
+refused to say what he had done with it, as only a little silver
+remained, but at last owned that he had given the two tens "for
+safe-keeping" to the elder of the Hulker brothers as they stood there
+by the hose carriage. There was an unsettled account between them,
+covering only a few dollars, Hoover claimed, but the Hulkers said a
+great deal more, and while they were trying to straighten it out the
+Doctor swooped down on him and bore him away. This, if true, would
+account for the money Hulker gave Martigny. But who took the money from
+the Doctor's drawer? Who put that ten-dollar piece in Shorty's
+overcoat-pocket? Why didn't Shorty wish to take the whole holiday with
+the other boys as proffered by the Doctor? Halsey had to ask him, and it
+was plain the little fellow hated to answer, but answer he did. He was
+being educated at the expense of his relatives. They had made occasional
+criticism of the Doctor's proclivity as to half-holidays, and when this
+quarter day came Shorty had been not unkindly told that the money
+expended in payment for those school bills was for his instruction, not
+his amusement, that Saturday and Sunday were holidays enough in the
+week, and, finally, that he should have his check on Wednesday, and
+meantime they expected him to attend school.
+
+One more question had Halsey to ask, and over it the youngster pondered
+long, though he answered instantly. "It was not four minutes--not much
+more than three--between the time you came in and the moment of the
+announcement of the fire. Was there no sign of it when you crossed
+Twenty-fifth Street? Didn't you know that the alarm would be given in a
+minute?"
+
+"No, sir, there wasn't a sign or a sound of it on the avenue; besides, I
+came through Twenty-fourth Street, from the direction of the
+Lawrences';" and that ended Halsey's cross-examination. To clinch
+matters, he had taken Shorty with him, as has been told, and questioned
+a fireman of 61 Hose, then sent him home for dry clothing, happy in the
+importance of having held 28's pipe a whole half-hour, and hungry as a
+bear. Small wonder that the family decided after dinner that evening
+that it was time to call a halt on this craze for running to fires on
+the part of their junior member. But events were looming up that were
+soon to spare them further care in that direction.
+
+What the First Latin and Pop and Halsey and Beach now longed to know,
+however, was, where was Snipe, and why had Mrs. Park failed in her
+mission? The rector and his head-master had now good reason to know that
+whether Lawton had anything to do with the disappearance of Joy's watch
+(which none of them could really believe), he was not the only thief in
+the school, for the loss of the hundred dollars long after his
+disappearance conclusively settled that. There were now not more than
+half a dozen lads who believed that Snipe was dishonest to the extent of
+stealing a watch, not more than a dozen who doubted his integrity at
+all, and as for his saying in his letter that he could be reached
+through the Massasoit at Bridgeport, there were theories in abundance to
+explain the fact that neither in person nor by letter had Snipe
+"reported." He never said where he had found work; he had not given the
+address of his benefactors; he still, it seemed, dreaded that his
+step-father would enforce his return to a life that was torment to a boy
+of his character and spirit. He had merely told Shorty that a letter
+addressed care of the Massasoit, Bridgeport, would reach him; and,
+learning this through the admissions wrung from his sorely badgered
+"chum," and never waiting to write, the impulsive woman had gone at once
+in person, and the Massasoit people knew nothing whatever of the son. No
+one answering his description had been there, and as for letters being
+sent in care of the house, they showed her a bundle of missives so
+addressed. Every day guests would arrive, register, ask if letters had
+come for them, ransack the packet, select their own, and toss the others
+back. Some they showed her had been waiting a month for claimants. If
+she were to leave a letter addressed in their care for her son and if he
+were to call for it, they would telegraph to her, but that was all they
+could promise, and, after consulting the city authorities and, of
+course, the minister of the church to whose doctrines she had pinned her
+faith, and all without hearing of a lad who in the least resembled her
+George, the sad-hearted woman had gone miserably back to Gotham and to
+Pop.
+
+Then, of course, she wrote, and so did Shorty. Both letters begged Snipe
+to return, but by this time Mr. Park himself had come to New York to
+persuade his wife to go back to her home and to promise that he himself
+would seek and find the wandering boy and fetch him to her arms,--the
+worst piece of strategy that could have been adopted, as Shorty, boy
+that he was, could have told her and would have told Park. Left to his
+mother and to his chum, the lad's heart might have relented and his
+stubborn pride dissolved, but there are men sublimely gifted with the
+faith that they alone are competent to deal with affairs, either public
+or personal,--that without their aid and guidance everything is sure to
+go amiss. Park sped away to the Massasoit on the heels of the letters,
+and when George Lawton drove in with the hope of finding the longed-for
+messages from home, and went from the stable where they had put up the
+sleigh straight and eager to the Massasoit, there, with his back to the
+huge, red-hot stove and facing the office desk, as though to guard that
+package of letters, there, grim, unbending, repellent as ever, stood
+George Lawton's step-father, and the lad, scenting treachery, turned and
+fled.
+
+When the school assembled for the eventful year of '61, the First Latin
+found itself reduced to twenty-five. Hoover, it was announced, would
+spend some months in Mobile with a private tutor and rejoin after
+Easter. From Snipe Lawton there came neither message, missive, nor
+token. A rumor flew from lip to lip one April morning that a lad
+answering every description of the missing boy had fallen from the
+steps of a New Haven train through a gap between the beams of the Harlem
+bridge and was lost in the murky waters. The brakeman who saw the
+accident was well known to members of the school who lived at New
+Rochelle, and so impressed the Doctor with his story that reward was
+offered for the body, and men dragged the river for several days. "What
+you need," said one of the wiseacres of the First Latin, "is to fire
+cannon over the stream, and that'll bring him up if anything will," and
+the words were recalled when, within another day, the guns of Sumter
+boomed from shore to shore, rousing a nation from its lethargy, bringing
+many a man and boy to vivid life and action such as they had never known
+or dreamed before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+The great city had gone wild. Not a month before many of Pop's boys had
+ridiculed the lads of a rival school who had employed a drill-master
+from the Ninth Regiment and met two evenings a week. But Shorty, after
+vainly trying to start a rival company among his own mates, had gone
+over and enlisted in the ranks at Mulholland's. As a drum-boy he was not
+allowed to handle a musket and "fall in" with the famous regiment to
+which he was attached. Indeed, he would have had to stand on a
+step-ladder to load "according to tactics" the long, glistening musket
+with which the troops were at that time armed. Mulholland's boys had
+hired a lot of old-fashioned cadet musquetoons, heavy and cumbrous, but
+they were marvellous weapons in the eyes of the lads. Officers on duty
+at Governor's Island were frequent visitors at the Primes' at Fourteenth
+Street, and Shorty could not but hear of the preparations at the
+arsenal, the effort to send reinforcements and provisions to Major
+Anderson at Fort Sumter. All the world knew at this time how the "Star
+of the West" was fired on and forced to put back to sea, but still not
+one man in five would admit there should be war, and, in the great
+Democratic community, hundreds and hundreds of people and not a few
+papers almost openly took sides with the South. Two lads at Pop's
+actually came to school wearing the colors of South Carolina in their
+waistcoats, and in the First Latin the Ballous, whose father had
+embarked his capital in steamships trading with Charleston and Savannah,
+and Seymour, whose relatives were nearly all Southern, and the Graysons,
+who were Northerners by birth, but had many kindred in Virginia and
+Alabama, were all openly "secesh" in their talk. And still lessons went
+on, and the boys even had time to talk of Snipe and wish him back, and
+of Hoover and wish him in Jericho. Long ere this, now that there were
+two absent and Briggs had not a friend or a believer left in the school,
+all the First Latin had swung round into the conviction that poor Snipe
+was the victim of circumstances and conspiracy, and that Hoover was the
+cause of all his woes. The story of the hundred-dollar stealing had
+begun to be accepted as a fact, though Pop and his assistants could
+never be got to admit it. The further fact that Hoover and those
+notorious scamps, the Hulkers, had not been seen in New York since the
+Christmas holidays had set afloat a story that they had been discovered
+to be connected in many a piece of rascality. Everything missing at
+school for over a year was now attributed to Hoover. He had been able,
+said the boys, to dispose of his plunder through those Hulker fellows,
+who, despite the money lavished on them by their foolish mother, had
+debts in many a bar-, billiard-, and pool-room, and were known to have
+pawned valuable jewelry from time to time. She was with them somewhere
+in the South, and the gloomy old house in Twenty-first Street was cared
+for by the servants, who were glad enough to have their young masters
+away and suspicion attaching to themselves at last removed. But still
+that watch of Joy's and certain valuables of Aunt Lawrence's remained
+unaccounted for. Still the police were baffled. Still there came no news
+as to Snipe's whereabouts, and his mother, deeply distressed, had gone
+home to Rhinebeck and had to be content with receiving once a month a
+few lines saying her boy was well, working, and would return to her one
+of these days when he had earned enough to make him independent. Those
+letters bore only the date, which often differed by three days from that
+of the post-mark, but the post-mark helped them not at all. One letter
+was posted in New York, another in Boston, a third in Philadelphia. It
+was evident that Snipe was determined to give his step-father no further
+chance to find him. Once he wrote to Shorty, upbraiding him gently for
+being instrumental in putting "old Park" on his track, but that was all.
+Shorty felt it keenly, but with that poor mother and the Doctor and his
+home people all importuning him and telling him what was his duty, the
+boy had weakened and given the clue, with the result that they had
+gained nothing and he had lost his friend. There was little comfort in
+the assertions of the one whom he referred to as his "Sunday-school
+aunt," that he ought to be thankful to be rid of so undutiful and
+undesirable a companion. Shorty, to use the vernacular of the day,
+"couldn't see it," and fell from grace for saying so. But now the
+thrilling days of suspense were on the nation, and, while everybody who
+knew the South knew well the South meant fight, the baa lambs of the
+pulpit and the braying leaders of the press kept on preaching about the
+ties of brotherly love, the right of the people to assemble peaceably
+("even when under arms"), and the wrong of interference or intimidation,
+so "Let the erring sisters go in peace." As late as the 8th of April,
+one night when the boys were drilling in the big gymnasium on the upper
+floor of Mulholland's school, and quite a number of people were looking
+on, a venerable patron of the school stepped forward during the rest and
+proceeded to address them.
+
+"Cease all this waste of time, boys. Put away your cruel weapons.
+Abandon this senseless strutting and marching. War is a relic of the
+dark ages,--of barbarism. The world has grown wise with years, and of
+the enlightened nations of the earth America stands foremost. Trust to
+the broad views of our statesmen and the good sense of the people. They
+will ever stand between us and the horrors of a civil war."
+
+There was much applause among certain mothers and sisters sitting along
+among the spectators, but Mulholland and the boys did not join. It was
+significant of what the drill sergeant thought that the moment the
+handclapping subsided he commanded attention and then "Fix bayonet!"
+Within the week that followed, the broad views of many a Southern
+statesman were manifest in the shotted guns trained on Sumter. The good
+sense of the people, so far from "standing between us and the horrors of
+civil war," boiled over in a genuine Anglo-Saxon exuberance of battle
+fervor. The news that the stars and stripes were lowered in Charleston
+Harbor sent them to the peak of every staff throughout the North, and
+men, women, and children swarmed upon the streets, decked with the
+badges of red, white, and blue. All Gotham had caught the war fever. The
+President's call for the services of the State militia to defend the
+capital until the volunteers could be enrolled sent the Sixth
+Massachusetts through the city the very next morning, the famous New
+York Seventh following by special train late the following day, and the
+Eighth Massachusetts marched down Fifth Avenue the same evening the
+Seventh went away. The best blood and brawn of the metropolis and of the
+Bay State were the first to respond. The Sixty-ninth, Seventy-first,
+and Seventy-ninth, Irish, American, and Scotch regiments of the great
+city, followed within the week, the jaunty Frenchmen of the Fifty-fifth,
+the Grays of the Eighth, the Blues of the Twelfth were promptly under
+arms. Every able-bodied man of the tribe of Prime was in uniform and
+away to the front before the month of May was ushered in, and Shorty,
+with breaking heart, had shut himself in his room and sobbed himself
+sick because he was forbidden to even think of going. He listened to the
+thrilling strains of the Seventh's splendid band until the last sound of
+their favorite "Skyrockets" was drowned in the hoarse cheers of the
+crowds that saw them off. He went to school as ordered and got "flunked"
+in every lesson. He sat on the mourners' bench in utter misery and
+despond all through the week that followed the going of the city troops,
+after having deliberately absented himself from every session during
+which a regiment happened to be marching away, and in all the two weeks
+that followed the coming of the news from Sumter only once had there
+come into his life a moment of joy and comfort, and that was the day
+following the departure of the Seventy-first (red-jacketed drum corps
+and all,--all except poor Shorty), when, as the First Latin bustled out
+into the street at recess, and Shorty, last of all, came drearily down
+with his hands in his pockets, ordered out, in fact, by Mr. Beach, he
+was greeted on the sidewalk by a jeering laugh and Briggs's taunting,
+sneering words. "Hullo, drummer! So you thought you'd better stay home
+where there wasn't going to be any show of fighting, did you?" and
+Briggs might have known what would happen. Just as before, in a sudden
+whirl of fury, the youngster flew at him, landed both fists on the
+freckled "mug" before Briggs could either dodge or guard; bore him
+backward in the full force of the instant attack; the carroty head
+banged on the curb and knocked him stupid, and then the peace-makers
+really might have been less deliberate in pulling Shorty off. Briggs was
+a wreck when his raging assailant was dragged away, and Halsey,
+wild-eyed, came rushing out to stop the fray. "Prime, Prime!" he said,
+as he held him by the collar. "You've tried the rector's patience to the
+utmost this last week, and I fear this will end it all."
+
+"I don't care if it does!" panted Shorty. "I'd rather be killed than
+kept here any longer. I hope he _will_ expel me. Then perhaps they'll
+let me go where I belong!" And in a torrent of wrath the youngster's
+swelling heart burst over all bounds, and he was led sobbing away.
+
+Still dazed, half blind, and bleeding, Briggs was lifted to his feet.
+"It served you right, you hulking coward," said Joy, as he and Bertram
+led the battered object to the horse-trough in the stable. "You couldn't
+have insulted him more brutally."
+
+"It's of no use," said the Doctor that evening, gravely, to a
+gray-haired grandsire, who was himself burning with longing to go to the
+front. "That boy can't study now. You see he was regularly enlisted as
+a drummer. He fully believed that when his regiment was called out that
+nothing could keep him back, and, boy-like, he has said so among his
+fellows,--probably bragged of it a little. He who had been so boastfully
+confident now has to stay and face the sneers of the school, while big
+boys of eighteen and nineteen like Dix and Julian have gone with the
+Seventh. It breaks his heart, my friend. There's no likelihood of
+fighting just now. The rebels won't be fools enough to attack
+Washington. Send him down there to his uncle. Let him have a taste of
+camp life. The city troops will come home as soon as the volunteers
+begin to arrive. In fact, if you don't there'll be incessant war right
+here at school."
+
+"But there's his examination for college," said the head of the Primes,
+himself a don of Columbia.
+
+"Well, didn't you assure Dix and Julian that Columbia would admit them
+without examination whenever they knocked at the doors? Didn't you at
+faculty meeting say that three seniors, who never could have got their
+diplomas in the world, should have their degrees without further
+question, despite the fact that they have dragged along at the foot of
+their class for the last two years, all just because of the fact that
+they have gone to the front with their regiments?"
+
+"But then he's so small for his years," was the next objection.
+
+"All the better soldier! Those big, long giants break down. Those
+stocky little fellows are the stayers. Besides," says Pop, with a
+twinkle in his eyes, "size doesn't seem to count for much. You--ought to
+have seen Briggs."
+
+"Was he well pounded?" asked the head of the house, with interest ill
+becoming his years and station. Perhaps he is thinking of old, old days
+at "Harrow on the Hill," when he, too, had been under the ban for more
+than one forbidden fight.
+
+"Halsey says he looked as though he'd been mauled by a wildcat;" and to
+save his reputation the Doctor cannot repress a grim smile.
+
+"The young rascal!" says the head of the house.
+
+Shorty, meantime, remanded to his room to cool off and meditate on his
+sins, has done neither. The drum which was his joy and the jaunty
+uniform are gone. To his unspeakable grief, there had come an order for
+them from the adjutant the day before the regiment marched. Another boy
+had been accepted in his place, a bigger boy, who could hardly squeeze
+into either jacket or trousers, but, of course, did not return them.
+They were regimental property, and yet Shorty felt a sense of personal
+indignity that, even when he couldn't go, the adjutant should permit any
+other one to take his place. Of his misery when, clinging to his perch
+on a lamp-post above the cheering throngs, he saw those twenty
+red-jacketed lads, led by the drum-major, coming proudly trudging down
+Broadway at the head of the splendid command, it would be impossible to
+tell; and now, twitted and insulted at school because he was bound to
+obey the decree of his grandparents, virtually suspended for resenting
+the insult, and, last of all, practically a prisoner in his room, poor
+Shorty's cup was full.
+
+There came a step in the hallway without, a knock at the door, and the
+butler's boy, a stanch friend, ally, and fellow-fireman, stood and
+waited. There was no answer, and he stooped and hailed through the
+keyhole.
+
+"Mr. Shorty, father sent me up with some dinner,--and there's a letter,
+looks like Mr. Snipe's writin'."
+
+The door flew open and the letter was seized.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     "DEAR SHORTY," it read,--"I used to think nothing would ever
+     make me a soldier any more than nothing could keep you from
+     being one, but here I am, high private in the rear rank, and as
+     big if not as broad as the rest of 'em. I swore I was eighteen
+     and over. I have the height and looked strong. They wanted to
+     fill the company up to a hundred, and there was no further
+     question. Fancy my delight when we went into camp next your
+     regiment and my surprise when I couldn't find you among the
+     drum-boys. Billy Archer says you nearly went crazy when they
+     came away without you. What's the matter? You _are_ coming,
+     aren't you? I saw your Uncle Hal in his captain's uniform
+     yesterday, and stood up and saluted with the rest. I shan't
+     tell you my regiment or address this time, though Park
+     couldn't take me away from Uncle Sam even if he did come. But
+     when you get here hunt up Billy Archer, and he'll tell you
+     where to find your old chum.
+                                                       "SNIPE."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night, late, it occurred to some one that it might be well to go up
+and see Shorty and try to reason with him and comfort him, or "do
+something," as it was vaguely expressed. The room door was wide open,
+the dinner stood untasted on the tray, the tray was on the bed, and
+Shorty was gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+It was a starlit summer night following a day of moist, debilitating
+heat. It had rained at dawn, and then, as the clouds of heaven broke
+away and went sailing off towards the distant heights on the western
+horizon, the sun had poured hotly down on open fields and sodden red
+roads and long rows of wet, white tentage, veiling the landscape with
+miniature clouds from the teeming earth. All day long soldiers
+innumerable lolled about the camps and thronged the sentry-posts that
+lined the roadway, chaffing the passers-by or dickering with darky
+vendors of fruit, cakes, and pies,--amateur soldiers were these, as any
+veteran could tell at a glance, some in gayly trimmed regimentals, some
+in antiquated tail-coats, more in fancy jackets, few in serviceable
+garb, and nearly all with their hands in their pockets. A bored, jaded,
+time-killing lot they looked. The ground was too wet and muddy for
+drill. The first flush of patriotic fervor had worn away. They had
+rushed to the front at the earliest call, expectant of tremendous
+doings, and, except the street-fight of the Sixth Massachusetts in
+Baltimore and a few shots heard at the picket-posts, there had been no
+taste of battle. They were the three-months men, mainly State militia,
+hurried down to hold Washington against attack, while the volunteers,
+the "three-years men" of the war, were organizing and drilling behind
+them. Their three months had nearly expired, and most of them were eager
+to go home so long as there was nothing going on at the front. Some,
+indeed, were ready to go anyhow, many with the promise of commissions in
+the volunteers, many with the resolve to re-enlist for the war, but all
+anxious to visit home and friends and families and get a more deliberate
+start than that initial impulse which sent them forward the latter part
+of April, burdened with knapsacks they knew not how to pack or wear and
+guns that they had never shot.
+
+And here, along the main pike to Fairfax and Centreville, one on each
+side of the way, a New York and a New England regiment of militia had
+been swapping comments and criticisms most of the afternoon, badgering
+each other when there came no one else to bear the brunt of their
+shafts, and mischievously turning with one accord on passers-by whose
+lack of rank or escort suggested improbability of effective resentment.
+
+But as the day wore on and the mud thickened in the middle of the road,
+and staff-officers, orderlies, and ambulances passing by began to veer
+out to right and left and encroach on the sentry-posts and the grinning
+groups that lay just back of them, "the boys" waxed more savage and
+sarcastic. They had occupied those camps full six weeks, and thought
+they owned the neighborhood. Back towards Washington, on every rising
+ground, the red embankments showed where earthworks had been thrown up
+to defend the front. Along the beautifully wooded slopes to the north
+and west the fair contours were scarred and defaced with freshly spaded
+parapets, and through gaping embrasures here and there frowned the black
+muzzles of the Union guns. Over a rounded knoll half a mile to the
+northwest of the camp of the New-Yorkers the stars and stripes hung
+lazily from a white staff, and there were the quarters of a division
+commander, whose aides and orderlies had been oddly busy all day long,
+responding, according to rank, with a frown of annoyance or a grin of
+amusement, to the hail of comment or question from the loungers along
+the line. But at four in the afternoon a whole squadron of regular
+cavalry, with high-collared, yellow-trimmed jackets and jaunty
+forage-caps, came silently squashing by, taking the mud and the middle
+of the road as a matter of course, and the chaff and comment as of no
+consequence whatever. Hardly had their flapping silken guidons
+disappeared around a bend of the pike three hundred yards farther to the
+west than there came jogging into view from the rear a long column of
+horses, gun-carriages, and caissons, the cannoneers sitting motionless
+on the chests, the drivers carefully guiding their powerful teams. A
+wiry captain, followed by his bugler, came trotting forward, surveyed
+the mud that interposed along the defile between the two camps, nodded
+cheerily to the "Going out ahead, Cap?" sung out to him by the nearest
+New-Yorkers, and signalled with gauntleted hand to the leading chief of
+section to incline to the right and take the turf at the roadside; and
+so they, too, went clinking steadily by, twelve long teams of six horses
+each, hauling six bronze "Napoleon" guns, heavy fellows, and six loaded
+caissons. Behind them came their forge and battery wagon, a mule-drawn
+baggage-wagon or two, and one of the famous light batteries of the
+regular army had passed through the thronging lines of the State
+militia, who emptied their tents to see the procession and to hurl
+question after question as to the meaning of it all. And this was only a
+beginning, for right behind it came the flaunting red silk guidon of
+another battery, differing from the first only in that the men wore
+red-trimmed jackets instead of dark-blue blouses, and that the
+cannoneers were skipping along the roadside or squashing through the
+mud, their captain holding sternly, even on a short march, to one of the
+rules of the light artillery, that the horses should have to pull as
+little weight as possible. And no sooner was he fairly by and his men
+well within the lane of the militia camps than the storm of fun and
+chaff rose to uproar, silenced only when the tail of the column had
+passed beyond. By this time, too, the officers were coming out to take a
+look. Then there rose a burst of martial music and a sound of cheering
+up the roadway, and, preceded by a band, there rode into sight some
+mounted officers, behind whom gleamed the sloping barrels of the arms of
+a battalion of infantry; and now New York and New England dropped cards,
+checkers, or chat, and the last laggards of both regiments come
+streaming to line the roadway and scan these bold invaders. Even the
+colonels mount their horses and ride in among their men, and as the
+music ceases and the regiment picks its way gingerly through the mud,
+the cry goes up from the eastward skirts of camp, "The Fire Zouaves!"
+and that cry is taken up and passed from lip to lip, and order and
+discipline, even of these primitive war days, all are forgotten, and as
+the long column comes winding down the gentle slope in the afternoon
+sunshine, and bright bits of scarlet glow through the sombre tone of
+gray, and the old familiar fire shirts are recognized, as one man the
+New-Yorkers set up the welcoming fireman chorus of the streets of
+Gotham, and the welkin rings with shouts of "Hi, hi, hi!" mingled with
+rapturous cheers. Prompt comes the answer from a thousand lusty throats.
+Caps and hats are tossed in air, ay, and, as the column and the colors
+mingle, canteens, tossed from bystanders to marchers, are pressed to
+thirsty lips and passed from hand to hand. Officers and men alike,
+militia and volunteers, the soldiers of Manhattan are shouting greeting
+and rejoicing, and the next moment, despite all efforts of the senior
+officers to stop it, the Zouaves are forcibly seized and dragged from
+the marching ranks, hugged and hauled and slapped on arm and chest and
+leg and shoulder, wherever knapsack, blanket, and cartridge-box do not
+interpose below the neck, and men come running with more canteens, and
+Zouaves are lugged bodily away to the neighboring sutler's tent, and
+when, finally, the last unmolested files of the Fire Zouaves have gone,
+cap-waving and cheering, on in the trail of the batteries, the camp of
+their fellow-townsmen is filled with stragglers who are only recovered
+an hour later through the medium of strong patrols.
+
+But meantime the batteries have "gone into park," unhitched and
+unharnessed back of the Virginia farm-house just beyond the bend. The
+Zouaves have trailed off into an open field between them and the tents
+of the New-Yorkers. Staff-officers have conducted the commanders to the
+designated spots for their bivouac. Two other regiments of the new
+volunteers have followed, marching somewhat wearily past the now
+thoroughly roused camps of the militia, and as the sun sinks to the west
+and heavy knapsacks are unslung and arms stacked in the fields and
+sentry-posts established, everybody begins to realize among the tents of
+the earlier comers that a move to the front is in contemplation, just
+when they were counting on a homeward move to the rear.
+
+And now as the tattoo drums are bracing up, a score of officers are
+gathered about the tents of the New York colonel, chatting over the
+probabilities. With them are two of the New England officers, one a
+grave, taciturn captain who has listened for half an hour without a
+word. By several officers the idea has been advanced that if a forward
+move is intended in response to the "on to Richmond" cry of the press,
+many of the men will demur. They were called into service in mid-April;
+it is now mid-July. Many of them are clerks who will lose their
+positions, married men who have made no provision for their families,
+staid citizens who from sense of duty sprang to the front at the first
+summons, so as to help hold the fort until the nation could organize its
+army of volunteers. Of regulars at the time there were less than ten
+thousand, scattered from Maine to Oregon, from Mackinaw to the Gulf of
+Mexico. Now the first levies of the volunteers were pouring in. Here
+already in front of Washington were regiments from New York, New Jersey,
+Michigan, Ohio, even far away Wisconsin. Why should the government
+require of the State militia, rallied at the capital solely to defend,
+that it should march away southward to attack an enemy in position?
+Similar views were being expressed in other militia camps, said the
+speaker, and the colonel looked worried.
+
+At last he turned to the stalwart, silent captain from the regiment over
+the way.
+
+"What do your people say, Captain Stark?" he asks.
+
+"Nothing," is the answer, as the tall, bearded man puffs meditatively at
+the brier-root pipe, his head resting on his hand, his elbow on his
+knee.
+
+"Well, you were mustered in about the same date we were. Don't some of
+your boys talk of going home, and wanting to?"
+
+"Not--audibly," says Stark.
+
+"Well, they must be thinking a lot. They are fixed pretty much as ours
+are," hazards a field-officer.
+
+"Possibly," says Stark, tapping out the ashes on the leg of the
+camp-stool. "But we made no stipulation as to the duty to be required of
+us. We tendered our services and expect to take our chances."
+
+"Do you mean your boys would all go, no matter how far south they were
+ordered?" asks a young officer who has already had much to say about his
+own.
+
+"My men will go wherever they're ordered," answers Stark, briefly. "I
+haven't any boys, except one, and he's so much of a man I never found
+him out till we got here."
+
+"That brown-eyed young fellow I've seen round your tent?" queries the
+colonel, deeming it wise to change the tenor of the talk.
+
+"The very one."
+
+"How'd you come to take him? He's too light built for heavy work. He's
+outgrown his strength and he don't look eighteen," says the major, glad
+enough to shift implied criticism to the rival regiment.
+
+"Well, his employers said he was worth three men around the shop, and he
+was bound to go. The inspectors passed him, and there he was in my
+company."
+
+"Looks all legs," hazards the colonel.
+
+"And is all head," says Stark. "That's why he's always studying tactics
+and regulations round my tent instead of fooling away time with the
+company. There goes tattoo. Good-night, gentlemen," and the
+New-Englander rises and presently strides away.
+
+Over within the lines of his own regiment Stark passes line after line
+of company streets where the men are skylarking or chatting, waiting for
+the "fall in" signal at the close of the sounding of tattoo. The drums
+and fifes are hammering noisily down along the color line as he reaches
+his own company and his first sergeant comes forward and, saluting,
+says, "Did young Lawton find you, sir?"
+
+"No. What did he want?"
+
+"Permission to go out of camp, sir. Said he knew an officer in the Fire
+Zouaves. The lieutenant signed a pass, and he took it to the colonel,
+but he wished the captain should know."
+
+"Very well. Form your company," says the captain.
+
+The long wailing notes of the tattoo and the roll of the drums came
+abruptly to an end. The silent, shadowy double rank stood to attention,
+and, lantern in hand, the sergeant called his roll. Two names met with
+no response besides those of men on guard. Two men were reported absent.
+One of them came on the run as the company broke ranks.
+
+"I was with Lawton, sir," said he, to his soldierly commander. "They let
+us into the Zouave camp all right, but didn't want to let us out. Lawton
+couldn't get away at all. As many as twenty of those red-shirted fellows
+nabbed him, and there he is a prisoner."
+
+"In fun, I suppose?"
+
+"Why, yes. They seem to know him well and be mighty glad to see him. I
+told my brother, who is in one of their companies, that Lawton must come
+home with me or he'd get into trouble, but the crowd just laughed."
+
+"Very well. Go to your tent," said Stark, and went to his own. There on
+the little camp-desk was a note which he tore open and read. Briefly it
+said that Lawton had recognized some old friends among the Fire Zouaves,
+and had sought the captain to get permission to go and see them early in
+the evening. Even though the lieutenant took the responsibility and
+signed the pass, and the colonel too, he wanted his captain to know
+whither he had gone and that he would be back at tattoo.
+
+But he wasn't back at tattoo, nor at taps. Not until eleven o'clock did
+Stark hear the sound of the young soldier's voice. Lawton was
+scratching at the tent-flap.
+
+"What is it?" shouted the captain.
+
+"It's Lawton, sir,--come to report return. I was held by those men,
+quite a lot of them, and simply couldn't make them understand about our
+discipline."
+
+"Never mind," interposed Stark. "Go to bed now and get all the sleep you
+can. You may need it;" and the captain rolled over on his cot, anxious
+to try his own prescription.
+
+But the late comer hesitated. For a moment he stood irresolute. Plainly
+there was something which he wanted to say to his commander. The officer
+of the day, lantern in hand, came along at the moment, his red sash
+crossed upon his broad chest. He raised the lantern and peered at the
+tall young soldier, whose coat and trousers looked as though they had
+been made for a shorter lad, and the face that was revealed seemed white
+and full of trouble.
+
+"I was just speaking to my captain, sir," explained the young soldier,
+and the officer of the day went briskly one way, the soldier,
+dejectedly, another.
+
+"Homesick, and wants to go and see his mother," said the officer of the
+day to himself. "Well, he needn't waste time pleading with Stark. Might
+as well talk to a stone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+"On to Richmond," said the Northern papers. "Sweep the flag of rebellion
+to the Gulf!" And obedient to popular clamor, and in defiance of common
+sense, the Government ordered its little army--a handful of regulars and
+marines, three dozen regiments of State militia, or of half-drilled,
+unseasoned volunteers--to advance and attack an army of equal size, made
+up of enthusiastic Southerners as undrilled as the Northern volunteers,
+but the flower of their manhood, defending their own soil, in their
+chosen position. The July sun beat hotly down on the long column,
+plodding south-westward through Fairfax. Many a poor fellow fell by the
+wayside, unable to keep up the pace and carry his heavy burden. Many a
+regiment broke ranks at sight of a farm well or at mention of a spring,
+and scores of stragglers stopped to pick blackberries by the way,
+defiant of the pleadings of their officers. Some Pennsylvania
+militiamen, at the last moment, refused to go farther than Centreville,
+and, with a New York militia battery, demanded their discharge on the
+plea that their time had expired. Some others succeeded in persuading
+the authorities in individual cases, and, to the scandal of those who
+tried and did not succeed, turned back to Washington. Those jaunty red
+jackets of the drum-boys in Shorty's old regiment looked worn and tawdry
+by this time, and the youngster whose wrists protruded far beyond the
+limit of the sleeves designed for the "little un" had more than once
+wished the original occupant back in his old place and his successor out
+of it. But that drum corps had seen the last of their smallest member,
+and he of them, for many a day. Billy Archer, he who was to tell Shorty
+when he came where to find Snipe, had been sent home sick at the end of
+the first month, and only seven of the biggest and strongest remained to
+beat the old "six-eights" and "two-fours" when the regiment marched for
+Manassas. There had come a letter from Shorty to Billy Archer with an
+enclosure to Snipe, but Snipe and his regiment disappeared the night
+before, and Archer didn't know enough to have it forwarded. He thought
+they would meet again within a day or two, when, in point of fact, they
+did not meet at all. Shorty's old regiment was assigned to a brigade on
+the north side of the Potomac, and Snipe's new-comers were marched over
+the Long Bridge to the sacred soil of Virginia and brigaded with troops
+from three different States, and there, as the grave, big Captain Stark
+had said, the representative of the First Latin spent hours at his
+commander's tent, studying tactics and regulations and a little book
+called "Mahan's Outposts," when Stark wasn't using them, and twice it
+had happened that when the New England regiment was called upon to
+furnish the details for grand guard and picket, the tall, slender,
+brown-eyed boy in Company "C" was able to tell corporals and sergeants
+things about their duties they never had dreamed of. So, too, on
+battalion drill, Snipe, who used to hate such things, and even now bent
+under the weight of his long musket, had a more intelligent idea of the
+purpose of each formation and movement than most of the file-closers,
+some lieutenants not excepted. Before they had been a month in Virginia
+Captain Stark had taken a strong fancy to the youngster, and was
+seriously thinking of decorating his arms with chevrons when the order
+for the advance and Stark's promotion came together. The
+lieutenant-colonel, finding that his health could not stand the climate
+and exposure, had resigned and gone home, and just the very morning
+after the incident described in the last chapter a batch of new
+commissions reached the New-Englanders. Stark became major, vice
+Proctor, promoted lieutenant-colonel, and turned his company over to its
+new captain, the former first lieutenant. Stark's first act, after
+taking the oath and signing his acceptance, was to send for Lawton. The
+regiment, with much glee and excitement, was packing knapsacks for the
+move, and the lad came, pale and troubled.
+
+"Are you ill, Lawton?" demanded Major Stark.
+
+"No, sir. I just--got some bad news."
+
+"Folks ill?"
+
+"No, sir; it's something a sergeant in the Fire Zouaves told me."
+
+"You don't wish to go home, do you?"
+
+"I do, sir; but I won't. I'm going with the company."
+
+"Lawton," said the major, after a moment's scrutiny of the lad's solemn
+face, "you've never told me where you live and I've never asked. I
+believed in you, and that's enough. The colonel has given me permission
+to choose my orderly from my old company. I have bought Colonel Poague's
+horses. The orderly will ride my spare horse and look after both. I want
+you, if you care to take the place."
+
+"Yes, sir; I do."
+
+"It leaves you out of the race for vacancies among the corporals."
+
+"No matter, sir. That'll come when we reorganize for three years."
+
+And so Snipe turned his long musket and heavy cartridge-box over to the
+first sergeant, dumped his knapsack and blanket into the field-officer's
+wagon, and straddled the major's spare horse. At any other time he might
+have felt the sense of exaltation that is inevitable to the boy or man
+who knows how to ride, but the young soldier's spirits were dashed and
+drooping. There was no time for brooding, however. The New-Englanders
+were on the march for Manassas. The dusty roads were thronged with
+troops, trudging buoyantly ahead, confident in the strength of their
+numbers and counting upon a conqueror's entrance into Richmond within
+ten days. Somewhere about noon, midway between Fairfax and Centreville,
+the "route march" was suddenly changed to silence and to cadence step. A
+staff-officer had accosted the colonel. The commands "halt" and "front"
+brought them into line facing the left; then the regiment was dressed
+back to the right until it stood aligned at the roadside, and Snipe
+found himself seated in saddle just to the left rear of his major, who
+had reined up at the left of the line. Looking back along the
+dust-covered route, the lad could see that the regiments following them
+in column were also halting and "fronting," as soon as closed to proper
+distance, and then, with ordered arms, standing at ease and wondering
+what was coming. Presently, far back towards Fairfax, there uprose a
+cheer that was taken up along the line, and Lawton and his major,
+craning their necks, could see a body of horsemen coming through the
+slowly settling dust-clouds, following the lead of a soldierly-looking
+man on a big gray. A band struck up "Hail Columbia;" the regiment
+directly to their left began to take up the shout of acclaim, beginning
+away down at the tenth company, and the handsome horseman raised his
+forage-cap and spurred rapidly on. Again he raised it as he passed the
+colors, and the shout of greeting rolled into the right wing; and now
+the New England lads could see the yellow sash and the gold-embroidered
+belt, and knew a general officer was coming, and they, too, prepared to
+relieve their dusty lungs and overflowing spirits with a cheer. But all
+on a sudden the old colonel's shrill voice was heard, "Attentio-o-on
+battalion!" and talk and laughter ceased. "Shoulder-r-r _homps_!" and
+every musket jumped from the ground. "Prese-e-e-nt _homps_!" and nine
+hundred glistening barrels bounced out in front of nine hundred martial
+noses. The silken colors, State and National, drooped forward in homage
+to the coming dignitary. The major sat bolt upright and looking straight
+over his horse's ears, his sword lowered to the salute, and Snipe's hand
+went up to the visor of his grimy cap, and the major-general smiled
+affably as he came trotting by, his horse shying sidewise with eyes and
+ears attent, and the grizzled colonel got a word of soldierly praise
+from the cap-tipping commander as he sped swiftly on, the staff trying
+hard to look dignified and keep their seats and distance at the same
+time, which several of them, being new to the business, found it hard to
+do. Behind them jogged a troop of regular cavalry,--the general's
+escort,--veterans who had spent years in saddle and showed it; and then
+with gratified pride that he and his regiment had given proper and
+soldierly recognition to the chief, "instead of yelling like a
+town-meeting," said the colonel, that veteran of the Mexican war days
+permitted his men once more to "order" and rest and await developments.
+They were not long in coming. Away down to the left, over the shouts and
+greetings of other commands, could be heard the characteristic "Hi! hi!
+hi!" of the Fire Zouaves, and presently in long column of pieces,
+cannoneers mounted, two business-like batteries of the regulars came
+clinking along, their powerful, mettlesome horses moving like so much
+perfect machinery at steady walk, their drivers responding to the chaff
+and cheers and comments of the militia and volunteers by occasional
+droll wink or thrust of tongue into the nearest cheek, their nimble gun
+detachments grinning exuberantly, but rarely uttering a word. And then
+at last, when even their baggage-wagons had trundled by, a band was
+heard along the thoroughfare behind them, and through the dust came
+stalking a superb drum-major, his baton swinging in one hand, his huge
+bear-skin shako dangling from the other arm; and then the halted column
+coughed and sneezed as a strong regiment of infantry marched silently by
+in column of fours, determined, evidently, to impress upon the rest of
+the division their martial appearance and discipline. And then, in vivid
+contrast, right behind them, came the loose gray jackets and trousers,
+the red shirts and faces of the Fire Zouaves, grinning, chaffing, "hi,
+hiing" every foot of the way, and Major Stark turned and signalled to
+his orderly, and the lad rode up alongside.
+
+"These are your old friends, I take it, Lawton. Sit here where you can
+see them."
+
+The colors went sweeping by, flaunting in the sunshine despite the
+besmirching dust, and the seventh company came swinging along, and all
+of a sudden a wiry-looking sergeant file-closer glanced up and shouted,
+"Hullo, Snipey! How are _you_?" after the Bowery fashion of the day.
+"Hullo, Snipey!" came the greeting from half a dozen brawny throats.
+"Say, sonny, did you git square with that Metamora gang before you come
+away?" "Hullo, Snipe! Where's Shorty all dis time?" "Say, boy, what
+deestrick d'you run to now?" And before anybody could say a word to
+prevent it, half a dozen laughing, rollicking fellows sprang from the
+ranks and were crowding about Lawton as he sat blushing, half pleased,
+half ashamed, and shaking the lad by the hand. "Come over and see us
+when we git to camp," they cried in chorus, as, clamping their heavy
+sword-bayonets to their sides with the left hand, and trailing the brown
+barrels of their "special" rifles, they hurried on to catch their
+company. It was all over in a minute, but the New-Englanders looked
+curiously at the major's orderly, and that quiet-mannered, taciturn
+officer finally turned, with something like a smile.
+
+"One would hardly say those fellows could have brought you ill news,
+Lawton. They seem like old friends."
+
+"I knew them well when at school in New York, sir."
+
+"Who is Shorty?"
+
+"He was my chum, sir. I thought he'd be here long ago. He was a drummer
+in the Seventy-first New York. His relatives wouldn't let him come, I
+suppose."
+
+"Would yours, do you think,--if they knew?"
+
+"No, sir. But my father's been dead a long time. My mother married
+again, and--I've been shifting for myself of late."
+
+"I understand," said the major, inclining his head; "but does your
+mother know now?"
+
+"I write to her every month, sir. She knows I'm with the army. They
+would get me out if they knew where to find me, but I should enlist in
+another regiment under another name, so what would be the use?"
+
+And then once more came the command attention. Again the dusty march was
+resumed. Again the column alternately tramped and halted. Other generals
+and staff-officers rode to and fro, and were curiously inspected by the
+rank and file. Again the New-Englanders were led off into an open field
+some distance from the pike, and, late in the afternoon, stacked arms
+and unslung knapsacks in a skirt of woods. Pots, kettles, and canteens
+were filled from the cisterns and wells of the neighboring farm-house,
+whose inmates looked on in silent disapproval, and just as the sun was
+sinking toward a distant line of heights some twenty miles away to the
+west, that a school-master in the color company said were called the
+Bull Run Mountains, somebody held up a warning hand and said "Listen!"
+There was a throb and pulsation in the heavy, heated, breathless air. A
+dull booming sound at irregular intervals came floating from the distant
+front. Men sprang to their feet from under the trees and listened
+eagerly, their faces paling a little; some lips uncontrollably
+twitching. It was the first note of the grand overture so soon to burst
+in the magnificence of its volume on their unaccustomed ears. Somewhere
+out toward that winding fringe of timber in the low ground five miles
+away to the south a field battery had sighted the enemy in sufficient
+force to warrant unlimbering and letting drive. The hostile armies were
+within striking distance.
+
+For a moment the men from the land of the Puritan listened in awed
+silence. There had been a sharp encounter down that way two days before
+between the leading division and a concealed enemy, and rumor had it
+that many were killed and wounded, but the ambulances had been sent
+another way, and this brigade saw none of them. Over toward the roofs of
+Centreville a Western regiment sent up a cheer. Somewhere through the
+woods, down toward the right, the uproarious "Hi, hi" of the Zouaves,
+like the yelp of a pack of prairie wolves, rose swift from wing to wing,
+and in the midst of the distant clamor the major's quiet voice fell on
+Snipe's listening ears, and the lad started, gulped down some strange
+feeling as of faintness and nausea that had stolen over him, and pulled
+himself together.
+
+"The horses? Yes, sir, they'll be through feeding in ten minutes."
+
+"Very well. I'm to go forward with four companies at dusk. You needn't,
+if you wish to write--or anything."
+
+But when the major led that silent detachment into the winding
+bridle-path through the trees, following the lead of a young
+staff-officer who rode jauntily ahead, Snipe Lawton followed close at
+his commander's heels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+In more than a dozen regiments of raw soldiery camping in the fields
+about Centreville that hot July evening were lads no older than George
+Lawton. Among the seasoned regulars, few as they were, serving either as
+fifers or drummers in the infantry and marines, buglers in the batteries
+or trumpeters in the cavalry, were some who were even younger,--boys
+born in the army far out on the frontier, perhaps, or at the few
+garrisoned forts on the Atlantic coast,--sons of soldiers who knew no
+other life and who would have felt awkward in any dress but the uniform.
+But there were few who did not at first feel, as Snipe felt, a nervous
+tremor about the knees at sound of those swift banging guns. Veteran
+soldiers soon learn that cannon may boom all day and little damage be
+done, and that the real sound that tells of deadly battle is the
+sustained crackle and crash of musketry. All through the excited army
+the news had gone that there had been a "meeting" Thursday down at
+Blackburn's Ford to the left front, "a reconnoissance in force," a
+staff-officer described it to silent, serious Major Stark, "merely to
+develop the enemy." But that reconnoissance had developed something
+else,--the fact that some of the raw regiments, bursting with eagerness
+to march to Richmond ten days earlier, couldn't stand fire to-day, for
+the moment the screaming shells from the Confederate guns on the
+southern bank of Bull Run came crashing through the timber on the north
+side, a new volunteer command, shoved in there to support a battery,
+scurried out of it in most undignified haste. Others, no older in
+service, but better led, stood their ground like men, despite their
+pale, anxious faces, and roundly jeered the "salt-workers." One thing
+was settled to the satisfaction of General McDowell, commanding the
+Union force, and that was that the routes to Manassas Junction, either
+by way of the Stone Bridge straight ahead on the broad pike, or more
+directly by the several fords farther down-stream, were vigilantly
+guarded, so that "the longest way round" would probably be the shortest
+way to that centre of rebel activity. There at Manassas the railways
+from the South and from the Shenandoah joined. There were the stores and
+supplies. There was the strategic point, and scattered along the wooded
+bluffs that hemmed the stream on the southern side, all along for nearly
+eight miles were stationed the Southern brigades. With Manassas at their
+backs five miles away, with Bull Run directly in their front, with only
+one broad road and four or five bridle-paths or wagon-tracks leading
+down to it, the Southern general felt well assured in his position and
+equally confident of his men.
+
+On the other hand, the Union leader was schooled in strategy and grand
+tactics and quick to see his opportunities. Bull Run was as "crooked as
+a ram's horn," said the staff-officers sent forward to reconnoitre, but
+its general course below the Stone Bridge was southeastward, despite its
+deep bends and twists, while above the bridge, within four miles or so,
+from the neighborhood of Sudley Springs, it had three sharp elbows, and
+flowed alternately east and south. Below the bridge the woods were thick
+on both banks; above it, toward Sudley Church, were many open fields and
+patches. All Friday and Saturday the Union troops were closing up on
+Centreville, bringing with them, worse luck, a gang of curious
+spectators in carriages and buggies,--people coming out the twenty-five
+miles from Washington as though to a picnic,--and all this motley crowd
+was scattered through the fields and orchards and shady groves and
+swarming through the farm enclosures about the once placid, sleepy
+little Virginia village this still Saturday afternoon that preceded the
+momentous Sunday of the first real battle of the civil war.
+
+It was seven o'clock by the major's watch as the rear of his silent
+column swung clear of the bivouac where comrade soldiers stood and
+longed to cheer them off, but for the caution of their officers passed
+company by company down the line of stacked rifles. There had been a
+brief conference between the gray-haired, shrill-voiced colonel and his
+junior field-officer. The latter had received his orders direct from the
+commanding general. That accomplished soldier had keenly looked the
+major over, and, as the latter remounted and rode silently away, had
+turned to his adjutant-general with the comprehensive remark, "He'll
+do!" And now, as the twilight deepened and the stars began to twinkle in
+the eastern skies, through a winding wood-path the column moved,
+snake-like, swiftly, confidently, yet noiselessly, on. There was barely
+a farm-wagon track along the springy turf. Each man carried his
+knapsack, blanket, and his forty rounds. Light marching order would have
+been welcome after the heat and heavy burdens of the past few days.
+Route step was the command when clear of the sentry lines, but silence
+the caution. Quarter of a mile out, and in a little grove, the leaders
+came upon a company of infantry clustered about their stacked rifles.
+The wood road forked here, one branch going straight on north, the other
+bearing farther to the west. A word from the young lieutenant of
+regulars, riding side by side with Major Stark, and the commander of the
+picket reserves stood back, and, without a moment's pause, the battalion
+swung steadily on, taking the right-hand path. A few hundred yards and
+there was momentary check. A subaltern officer and some twenty or
+thirty soldiers stood under arms at a bend in the path, and now the
+light was so dim that the stars directly overhead were beginning to peep
+down at the drowsing world beneath. The two lieutenants, the
+professional of the staff, the volunteer of the infantry, held brief
+parley, while Major Stark looked back toward his coming battalion,
+signalled to the foremost captain marching sturdily by the side of his
+first sergeant, and that officer stepped out a yard or two, faced back
+toward the long column, and, first waving his sword aloft to attract
+attention, took it in both hands, the left near the point, held it
+horizontally over his head an instant, and then suddenly lowered it;
+whereat, without a sound, all who saw as quickly halted short, softly
+placing the shod butts of the rifles on the ground, and all others
+almost instantly followed the example. It was part of a silent drill the
+New-Englanders had been taught for just such emergencies.
+
+With beating heart Snipe listened to the low-toned colloquy. The
+lieutenant of the picket-guard, a trifle excitedly, was dictating some
+report just received from the outposts.
+
+"No, I didn't see 'em myself," he replied, in answer to question, "but
+Sergeant Holman says he couldn't be mistaken. The outermost sentries,
+three of them, all say the same. There were at least twenty-five
+horsemen. They forded the Run right down here to the southwest of us,
+and rode northward so as to cross this slanting path, if they kept on
+in the same direction, just about a mile from here. Holman's with the
+outposts now, sir."
+
+The staff-officer turned to Major Stark. "They may have been sent to
+destroy the very bridge we are ordered to guard," said he, in low tone.
+"It isn't two miles ahead."
+
+"Then the sooner we get there the better," was the prompt answer, and,
+glancing over his shoulder, the major signalled again, his right hand
+high in air at first, then pointing to the front, but in the gathering
+darkness the gesture was not fully understood. "Ride back, Lawton, and
+tell Captain Flint to follow with the battalion," and the two mounted
+officers rode rapidly ahead, and in a moment were lost to sight among
+the shadowy trees.
+
+It was Snipe's first mission as an orderly, and well he remembered it.
+Whirling his horse about, he trotted back to where the head of the
+column stood silently with ordered arms, the men leaning on their
+muskets. "Major Stark says to follow with the battalion, sir," he
+promptly announced to the alert captain, using as nearly as possible, as
+he had read was the duty of staff-officers and messengers, the exact
+words of the commander; and then, seeing the column instantly obeying,
+he again turned, rode sharply past the silent picket-post, and,
+straining his eyes for a sight of his major, while threading the dim
+vista of the wood path, he soon overtook the two again, halted once
+more and in earnest converse with a bearded, sturdy-looking sergeant,
+who, with a little squad of dark-uniformed infantry, formed the outpost.
+
+"The sentinels are not a hundred yards beyond us," he heard him say.
+"All three saw them. The ground slopes gradually to the south and west.
+It's quite open. They crossed the Run down yonder, and rode straight
+away northward," and the sergeant pointed to a distant ridge. "None of
+'em came within range. They didn't seem to think anybody would be out
+here at all."
+
+The staff-officer sat listening quietly and attentively until the
+sergeant finished. Then he turned to the major. "I chose this ground
+myself," he said. "The sentries are hidden by bushes from the front, and
+have a clear view for nearly a mile, by day at least, and looking back
+you could see the roofs of Centreville on the high ground to the east. I
+reconnoitred all through here yesterday and came across that bridge
+about three o'clock. There's a deep wide ditch, marshy in places, wet
+and miry everywhere for a mile either way, and the banks are steep. Foot
+troops and cavalry can cross all right, but we've got to keep that
+bridge for the guns, especially that big thirty-pound Parrott General
+Hunter's to bring along. I wish we'd been sent out earlier, though of
+course we might have been seen crossing the open fields. Look!" and
+Lieutenant Upton led a few paces to the edge of the scattered trees, and
+there the whole westward firmament was visible, even down to the black
+lines of the Bull Run Mountains, just setting its own "sentinel stars"
+for the long night-watch.
+
+"I wish so, too," said the major. "Lawton, ride back and guide the
+column. It may lose the way."
+
+Again the lad turned and trotted away, but before he had gone a hundred
+yards he could see the faint gleam of steel come dancing through the
+glade, and almost instantly there followed the stern, sharp, low-voiced
+challenge. "It's Lawton," he answered quickly. "The major feared you
+might lose the way, and told me to guide you."
+
+The men were panting a little now, for Flint was forcing the pace.
+Something told them there was work ahead. "Know what's up, orderly?"
+muttered the captain.
+
+"No, sir. The pickets say some rebel cavalry crossed the front just
+before dark, somewhere about two dozen of 'em." And as Snipe now rode
+along, with over three hundred stalwart fellows trudging at his back,
+despite all the excitement of the moment his thoughts went back to the
+school-days and the First Latin, and he wondered what the fellows would
+think to see him now, guiding a whole battalion to its post of duty,
+perhaps to its place in battle. He wondered with clinching teeth and
+quickening breath who could have made those fellows he had so sworn by
+believe that he, Snipe Lawton, was a common thief. Was that the reason
+Shorty never wrote again? Was that why no one now seemed to care where
+he was or what had become of him? The boy's wounded heart beat
+vehemently in protest and in indignation, and there in the darkness of
+that 'cross country wood path his lips murmured a prayer for guidance
+and protection, that he might live to give the lie to that
+slander,--might so live as to win honor and credit for the name his
+enemies had besmirched. Two nights before, following his major through a
+dark lane when visiting sentries, the boy's heart had bounded
+uncontrollably, and his knees had trembled so hard that his horse, too,
+seemed to shake, all because a nervous raw recruit had fancied he saw a
+rebel stealing on him through the blackness of the night, and after
+vainly challenging a wandering mule, had roused the whole division and
+nearly killed his major with a single wildly aimed shot. To-night as
+Snipe thought of the story he had wrung from the unwilling lips of
+Sergeant Keating, of the Fire Zouaves, one of 40's old "bunkers," the
+sense of pride and indignation bore down all thought of fear, and Snipe
+Lawton, who the year before hated drill and wouldn't be a soldier for
+anything, even now in the dark, where Napoleon himself had said most men
+were cowards, was praying that the rebels might be there at the bridge,
+and that he might be foremost in the dash upon them.
+
+On past the peering, shadowy knots of soldiers of Sergeant Holman's
+party he led them, the hard-breathing, swift-striding Yankees swinging
+along behind. Out over the starlit open to where, well across the field,
+he could dimly descry the forms of two horsemen. "Well done, orderly,"
+muttered the regular. "You've lost not a second. Now, major, we'll push
+ahead. Better caution them not to make a sound."
+
+"They won't," said Stark, in answer, and resumed the northward way. Five
+minutes and they were skirting an old snake-fence, well out beyond the
+hail of the last sentry or vedette of the Union lines. Any moment now
+they might meet scouting parties of the rebel horse, and here Lieutenant
+Upton warned the major to keep with his command, while he himself,
+bending low on his horse's neck, pushed out ahead. Ten minutes more they
+went without halt of any kind, but now Stark noted how hard the men were
+breathing, and ordered Flint to take it easy. "Soldiers need their wind
+if it comes to fighting," said he. Fifteen minutes, and there was a long
+fringe of timber ahead, and farther off to the north a light was
+shining, like a candle, in a farm-house window, but still the dim
+cart-track led on, and the young staff-officer kept out ahead. Little by
+little they drew closer to the trees, and eyes and ears were strained
+for sight or sound. The major, too, was bending low by this time, and
+eagerly, anxiously, scanning the shadowy line ahead. Presently he drew
+rein and muttered a call to Snipe, and the lad spurred up alongside.
+Both horses were pricking up their ears. "This horse acts as though
+there were others ahead there," whispered Stark. "It may be only the
+lieutenant's. Here he comes now!"
+
+It was Lieutenant Upton, riding cautiously back. "Major," he muttered,
+"that bridge is just across the next field, and I could hear voices and
+the sound of horses' hoofs on the planks. If it's that patrol, we've got
+'em. We can't deploy yet. We must creep through these woods and deploy
+beyond them. I know the ground."
+
+The column had not even halted, for the moment the staff-officer joined
+the leader he reined about and rode on, talking eagerly in low tone as
+he rode, then once more pushed cautiously ahead, the hoof-beats hardly
+audible on the springy turf, and was soon lost among the trees. Five
+minutes more and the major and his faithful orderly emerged again under
+the open starlight, and there they found their alert guide. "Let them
+halt in the timber a moment," whispered Upton. "Look at that light." And
+while the head of column abruptly ordered arms, and each succeeding set
+of fours almost bumped up against that which preceded it before it could
+do likewise, the aide-de-camp pointed southward.
+
+Upon some dark height full three miles away toward the Junction, and
+evidently some distance beyond the stream, a bright light, as of a
+lantern with brilliant reflector at its back, was shining steadily.
+"There was another a mile to the north of us as we crossed the last
+open common," said Stark. "Why, look! There it is again, yet it was dark
+just now."
+
+And then, suddenly as that northern light appeared, it was extinguished
+or hidden. Then, before any one could speak, again it flamed. Again it
+disappeared, and the explanation occurred to all three at the same
+instant. "Signalling, of course," muttered Upton. "Now get two companies
+into line, facing west; then we'll leave our horses with them and creep
+out toward the bridge."
+
+Another moment, and while Flint was noiselessly leading the foremost two
+into line, the major and the staff-officer had dismounted, handed their
+reins to silent Snipe, and out they went, crouching low, into the
+westward darkness, while every man breathed hard and listened. Then the
+southern light began to flash and disappear alternately. "We are far out
+to the west of Centreville," murmured Flint. "Those windows are hidden
+from that point. They doubtless think no one can see them here."
+
+Five minutes, and still no sound came from their venturesome scouts.
+They had had time to go all the way across if need be. "What d'you
+s'pose they signal for?" whispered a young soldier in the leading set,
+whereupon the sergeant turned and muttered, "Hush!" and men began to
+realize that it was a time to listen--not to talk.
+
+All of a sudden, low, clear, and distinct, a whistle was sounded not
+four hundred yards away. The first thought to strike every man was, the
+major! but the major had gone straight to the west; this sound came from
+across the wide field well to the northward of the supposed position of
+the bridge. Before there was time to comment the answer was given
+straight out ahead, soft, yet just as distinct. Then all three horses
+left with Snipe pricked up their ears and whirled toward the northwest,
+for from that quarter came the sound of hoof-beats, the low thud and
+rumble of horses moving at lively lope. Swift, invisible, they swooped
+down from the northward across the front. Then came sudden check, then
+silence, then the next minute the hollow sound of iron-shod hoofs upon
+resounding boards. First one horse, at a walk, then two, three, half a
+dozen together, and then silence again.
+
+Two minutes later, back from the front, running, came the major.
+"Forward, just as you are!" he muttered to Flint. "The bridge is safe,"
+and, swinging into saddle and bidding Snipe come on with the
+lieutenant's horse, he sped swiftly away across the field. At its
+western limit, at the edge of a deep, black trench that stretched away
+southward toward Bull Run, they found the staff-officer, standing at the
+old wooden bridge.
+
+"They've left it intact," murmured Upton, gleefully, "and they've been
+scouting around our right flank for indication of any attack from this
+direction, and have missed us entirely. Now let 'em come back and get it
+if they can!"
+
+In ten minutes three of Stark's strong companies had stacked arms among
+the timber to the west of the clumsy yet precious structure. The fourth
+was chosen for guard and picket duty, and, under the guidance of the
+energetic young staff-officer, every approach was covered. Wary sentries
+were stationed five hundred yards away, up and down the unsightly trough
+and well out toward the winding run, with supports and small reserves
+intervening between them and the main body. Even the open field to the
+east was guarded, for Major Stark meant that no enemy should come upon
+him unawares. Finally, deep in the shelter of the grove, they struck a
+light and consulted their watches. "Just half-past nine," said Upton,
+"and at midnight the move begins. Now I'll ride back and report. What
+splendid luck thus far!"
+
+"You have no orderly, lieutenant," said Major Stark. "Let Lawton ride
+back with you until you reach our lines. I'd be better satisfied."
+
+"There is no need, thank you, major. There is no likelihood of my
+meeting rebel patrols between this and our pickets. Those fellows are
+back across Bull Run by this time and riding away to tell Beauregard the
+Yanks have no idea of reaching round him this way."
+
+Snipe, listening in silence, hoped, despite the brave resolution of the
+earlier evening, that nothing would happen to change the lieutenant's
+mind. It wasn't the riding back with him that he dreaded to think of, it
+was the solitary trot to rejoin the major after seeing Upton safely to
+the lines. There on the distant heights the lights around Centreville
+were twinkling, and, even while the officers were consulting a moment
+before, the lad noted that while they could no longer see the gleam on
+the high ground south of the Run, the men were again whispering together
+about that signal to the north of them.
+
+Then the staff-officer held out his hand. "Good-night, Major Stark. I
+shall take pleasure in telling the general how prompt and soldierly your
+command has been. After all the go-as-you-please business I have had to
+note on the march it is good to see a regiment behave like regulars.
+Good-night to you, too, my lad. If I ever get a regiment I'd like to
+have a hundred young fellows of your calibre," said he, and to Snipe's
+surprise and delight Lieutenant Upton was grasping his hand too.
+
+But just as the young officer turned away a thought occurred to him.
+"The general will be anxiously awaiting my report, and I must hurry. If
+it weren't for that I'd find out what's going on where that light is up
+yonder. Good-night again. Look for us along about two o'clock."
+
+The muffled sound of the hoof-beats died away across the open field. The
+men close at hand unrolled their blankets and stretched themselves upon
+the turf. No fires were allowed, but many a pipe was lighted well within
+the shelter of the trees, and, too excited to sleep, they lay chatting
+in low tones. Several of the officers grouping about had heard the young
+regular's closing words. "That light can't be more'n a mile off," said
+Captain Flint. "I would like to know what's going on there myself."
+
+The major had dismounted, and by the gleam of a little folding lantern
+was jotting down some memoranda at the moment in the note-book he always
+carried. Method was second nature to Stark. Not until he had finished
+his writing did he reply. Then, even while glancing over his lines, he
+quietly said,--
+
+"You shall. Bring twenty men and come along."
+
+Quarter of an hour later, with the senior captain left in command at the
+bridge, Major Stark, Lawton as ever riding close behind him, was leading
+slowly and cautiously out of the shadows and across an open field that
+sloped gradually toward a low ridge against the northern sky. Behind
+them, treading softly, came Flint, a lieutenant, and twenty men. The
+latter had fixed bayonets and discarded anything about their equipment
+that would rattle. The north star gleamed right over what seemed to be a
+little grove along the ridge, and on the edge of the dark patch stood,
+against the sky, regular and square in outline, an object like a house.
+Not five minutes back a light was shining in the midst of it, but now
+that was gone. Slowly, cautiously, the little party continued its silent
+move, rising gradually with every rod, and at last the leader came to
+another snake-fence, and three or four stout fellows sprang forward and
+threw down a panel or two. While this was being done the major looked
+back, and there, shining over the low ground from the distant heights
+beyond Bull Run, that clear, steady light was gleaming again, powerful,
+almost, as the head-light of a locomotive. Away to the southeast,
+grouped about Centreville, the camp-fires of the Union troops were
+blazing, and from along this ridge their position was plainly visible.
+No wonder Virginia sympathizers chose the spot from which to signal! Now
+what message might they not be sending two hours later when the army
+began to move? It was after ten o'clock, and that house had been dark
+for over ten minutes, yet Stark felt confident their stealthy approach
+was unsuspected. Then comes the stifled cry, "Ha! there it is
+again!--the light in the upper window, well under the eaves!" Snipe's
+heart bounds almost into his throat in his excitement, for now it is
+barely long pistol-shot away, and he is the proud possessor of a new
+Colt's revolver, much handier, he thinks, than the long, cumbrous
+musket. And now it's out again; and now, five seconds later, shines
+anew, and so it goes,--darkness alternating with light three times, then
+all is black and unbroken. A sergeant is somewhere ahead looking for the
+next fence. The little party scrambles on up the steeper slope. If only
+there are no dogs about! Hear them baying over there toward Centreville?
+and over there yonder to the west toward Sudley Church? Surely if there
+are dogs here they would be out and baying their reply. Bigger and
+blacker looms the house ahead, and still no challenge from dog or man.
+Can it be that the farm folk have deserted it, and that only lurking
+scouts or spies are here?
+
+And now they come upon a dilapidated picket-fence; beyond it a row of
+bushes. The sergeant in advance turns back and tells the major there's a
+wide open gateway at the east, and into this he cautiously rides, Snipe
+still following. But, oh, how the boy heart is thumping! The roadway is
+soft Virginia earth, and the hoofs strike no pebbles. Presently the
+major dismounts, and, handing his reins up to Snipe, bids him wait there
+in a little open space. Then, noiselessly, he and Flint lead on with the
+men, and Snipe feels, rather than sees, that they are surrounding the
+house and stationing soldiers at every door and under every window. All
+these now are dark save two on the lower floor in front. There are thick
+shades within, but they show a dull light, as from a table-lamp. Not a
+sound beyond a creaking of a shoe or plank is heard. The men move like
+kittens, but it is their first experience of the kind, and most of them
+are excited, even nervous. As for Snipe, he rages to see how he is
+trembling.
+
+And then all of a sudden the major's horse, rejoicing that the weight is
+gone, gives himself a thorough shake, rattling housing and stirrups and
+accompanying the shake with a loud b'r-r-r-r of satisfaction. All too
+late Snipe springs from saddle and seizes both horses by the nostrils.
+Almost instantly booted heels are heard within, and manly, ringing
+voices. Somebody comes striding to the door and throws it open. A tall,
+slender, shapely fellow is outlined against the dim light within, and a
+voice hails cordially,--
+
+"Hullo! What brings you back? Anything the matter over yawnduh?" And
+that "yawnduh" betrays the Virginian.
+
+"Nothing," is the answer, in Stark's quiet tone. "But your house is
+surrounded by the troops of the United States and I'll trouble you to
+come out."
+
+For answer, out goes the light in the room, slam goes the door, and then
+there is dead silence just about five seconds. Then the order, "Break it
+in!"
+
+Up the low steps spring a sergeant and two men. Crash goes the door
+before their heavy rifle-butts, and then, bayonets advanced, in they go.
+The major, following coolly, strikes a light, and holds aloft his little
+lantern. The candles on the table are still smoking, and are quickly
+again ablaze. "Come in here, three or four more of you," orders Stark,
+while Flint comes hurrying round to the front. There is a rush of feet
+on the upper floor, a back window is hurled open. "Head 'em off there!"
+shouts Flint, as again he runs back. There is a sound of sudden scuffle,
+and some stern order within. Then Snipe can stand it no longer and leads
+his excited horses closer to the house. He hears the rifle-butts go
+banging at the doors up-stairs and more men hurrying into the hall. He
+hears Flint repeat the cry, "Watch every window!" And now he shifts the
+bight of both reins into the left hand and whips out his revolver, still
+towing his suspicious and reluctant steeds, and just as he nears the
+front, almost at his feet, the doors of a cellarway, hitherto unseen and
+unsuspected, fly open. Two dark figures burst forth. He feels again,
+rather than sees, that a murderous blow is aimed at his head, and even
+as he ducks out of the way a revolver flashes and barks just at his ear,
+and, now instinctively, he pulls trigger. At the flash and bang of the
+pistols the startled horses both jerk back, pulling him with them. One
+rein is torn from his grasp, but the captor gains nothing, for before he
+can reach pommel or stirrup, two long-legged Yankees are on him, and he
+is dragged back into the light. A third stumbles over a prostrate form
+writhing in the road, as Snipe quickly finds his feet; and, as Major
+Stark comes striding out and brings his lantern to bear upon the scene,
+the lad, pale, breathing hard, but with flashing eyes and that revolver
+grasped in his clinching hand, is standing over his stricken
+prisoner,--first capture of the advancing arms of the Union,--a young
+Confederate officer, whose brand-new uniform is richly laced with gold,
+but whose face is now white as death as he swoons away.
+
+[Illustration: First capture of the advancing arms of the Union.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+War was a new, strange, and terrible thing to George Lawton. For a few
+minutes after his thrilling adventure, while the soldiers were binding
+with bed-cords the wrists of the three unscathed captives, and Stark and
+Flint were ministering to the wounded officer, Snipe leaned against a
+tree, the same feeling of nausea and faintness overcoming him now as it
+did one day when he saw the brutal beating of an Irish wagoner on Fourth
+Avenue. Others of the New England men were searching the premises from
+garret to cellar, finding no human beings but two trembling old negroes,
+who had never been allowed to regard themselves as possessed of any
+rights a white man was bound to respect. The prisoners, sullen,
+scowling, and very much amazed that such a thing could happen on the
+sacred soil of Virginia, refused to answer questions as to the owners of
+the place. The young officer was only just recovering from the swoon
+that followed upon the shock of his wound, but the darkies humbly told
+all they knew. They were household servants,--slaves, of course. The
+farm was owned by a wealthy resident of Alexandria. The farmer and his
+family had gone. The young officer was "Marse Grayson," a nephew of the
+owner. The other gentlemen belonged to his troop in the cavalry, and
+there were four more of them somewhere over toward Centreville. They had
+been round there for several days, and signalling to their comrades over
+where "Marse Henry" and "Marse Robinson" lived, on the heights beyond
+Bull Run. Up in the attic the New-Englanders found candles, a polished
+tin reflector, and a flat board screen that just fitted in the window. A
+fine telescope and smaller field-glass were also there. A bountiful
+spread was on the table in the dining-room. The larder and cellar were
+well stocked, and the men from the land of steady habits did not disdain
+to "sample" the fluid refreshment found in the cool depths below the
+house or the delicacies in the pantry. Out in a wooden shed were four
+fine horses, with new saddles and bridles. Opulence was the rule in the
+Confederacy the first few months of the war; and now the sergeant and
+half a dozen men moved out to the front gate to look for those four
+troopers who were supposed to interpose between their feasting comrades
+and the possibility of surprise from the direction of the Yankees, and
+who, so early in the war, had not dreamed of foemen coming from the
+south. Possibly they had heard the sound of shots at the farm-house and
+would come galloping back to ascertain the cause. The young officer was
+reviving. The flow of blood was stanched. He was laid upon a mattress
+and, with six men to carry him, was started down the slope toward the
+main body at the bridge. Stark then ordered the party to bring the
+horses, captives, arms,--everything that could be considered legitimate
+spoil of war,--and follow at once. The signal outfit was smashed, and
+Flint, a veteran of the old Covenanter type, was for burning the house,
+which Stark forbade, if for no other reason than that it would instantly
+bring patrols of Southern cavalry out to inquire the cause. Indeed, it
+was a problem with him what to do about the signals. Through the
+powerful glass he was able to see that the light still burned on the
+distant heights to the south, and at any moment it might brightly blaze
+again, asking some question and demanding reply. "Better let them waste
+time in endeavors to extract an answer than lose none in galloping over
+to investigate a fire," he reasoned, and then turned to where his young
+orderly stood, again silently holding the reins of the horses.
+
+"We will push ahead," he said, as he mounted. A few minutes of search
+and they found the gap in the rail-fence, and overtook the party
+carrying the wounded Confederate. His youth and gentle breeding had both
+impressed the taciturn major, and now the fortitude which enabled him
+without a moan to bear the pain of this swaying motion roused the
+major's admiration. "Gently, men. There's no hurry. We'll have a
+surgeon for you in a short time, lieutenant," he said, encouragingly,
+then spurred on to rejoin his battalion at the bridge. Sharp and clear
+came the "Halt! Who goes there?" of the northernmost sentry, and Stark
+reined back instantly as he answered, "Friends,--Major Stark and
+orderly." "Dismount, both," was the order, as from a dew-dripping clump
+of blackberry-bushes the rifle-barrel glinted in the starlight. A dark
+form came running up from the rear, bayonet advanced, and peered
+searchingly into the major's face. They had no countersign, but those
+lads had learned their duty from a veteran colonel who had practised it
+before the Seminoles, the Sioux, and Mexicans, too, and Stark could not
+forbear a word of praise to both sentry and corporal as he bade the
+latter summon the officer of the guard. In ten minutes the entire
+detachment, with its prisoners, was safe within the wakeful lines, and
+the whole battalion roused up as one man to welcome and rejoice. A year
+later the incident would have been too trivial to stir a man from sleep.
+Now it was of tremendous importance. Eagerly Flint's men were detailing
+their share in the exploit, some of them, exhilarated both by the event
+and the potent apple-jack, telling rather more than their share. Gently
+the bearers laid the young officer under the trees. Stark motioned back
+the inquisitive circle that promptly formed, gave his patient a long
+pull at a flask and another of cool spring water from a canteen, and
+then gently asked him which he would prefer,--to be carried into
+Centreville or wait there until a surgeon could come out.
+
+"I do not care," said the wounded boy, with a sigh. "Can't you suppress
+this somehow?"
+
+"The bleeding?" asked Stark, anxiously. "Why, I thought I had."
+
+"No,--the whole business. I don't want mother to know I'm hurt."
+
+Stark scratched a match and looked at his watch. Just twenty-five
+minutes past eleven. In half an hour, as Upton said, the army would be
+astir and moving. There would be many another name added to the list
+before the setting of another sun. Already, North and South, the papers
+were ablaze with tidings of that misguided "reconnoissance in force"
+toward Blackburn's Ford, which had felled some sixty men on each side,
+sent Tyler's men back to Centreville disgusted, and inspired those of
+Longstreet and Ewell with a craze of undeserved triumph. By two o'clock
+in the morning the column of Hunter and Heintzelman would be crossing
+that guarded bridge on the way to the upper ford, but they would not
+wish to be burdened with wounded and prisoners when going into action.
+The battalion would undoubtedly be ordered to join its own regiment as
+it came tramping along. The general might extract from these prisoners
+information which would be of value. Stark's mind was made up quickly. A
+lieutenant and half a dozen men were selected as guards, another six to
+carry the mattress and wounded prisoner. Lieutenant Payne was given his
+choice of the captured horses while Stark wrote brief report of the
+affair. In ten minutes everybody was ready. Still bound with bed-cords,
+the three silent rebs were bidden to fall in, and then for the first
+time did Stark open his lips to his orderly since the brief words at the
+farm. In the hearing of half his little command, the major turned to
+where the latter stood, silent and a trifle awed and wearied.
+
+"Lawton," said he, "I send you back to the general with this party for
+two reasons: first, because you know the way and can guide them; second,
+because you made to-night the most important capture of the campaign
+thus far, and I mean that you shall have full credit."
+
+For a minute there wasn't a sound. Snipe felt dizzy with the sense of
+instant elation, following as it did the languor and depression of the
+moment before. Then some sympathetic soul among the listeners began a
+soft clapping of the hands. The example was contagious. Before a
+repressing word could be heard, the New-Englanders gave vent to their
+feelings in a volley of hearty, if suppressed applause. The major had to
+order silence and caution. Then handing a folded paper to his orderly,
+with a grim smile and a friendly pat on the shoulder, bade him mount and
+be off, and like a boy in some wild dream, incredulous, unrealizing,
+yet with a heart throbbing with thankfulness, George Lawton remounted
+and rode out into the starlight, over the echoing bridge, and took the
+front of the little detachment, his cheeks, so pale awhile ago, burning
+now with pride and hope, his thoughts drifting back to mother and the
+boys. What wouldn't Shorty give to be in his place this night?
+
+An hour later a knot of newspaper correspondents, orderlies, stragglers,
+and servants clustered about the party as it rested in the starlight in
+front of an old Virginia homestead. On a bed in the rear room the
+surgeons had laid the wounded Confederate. In the main room, with two or
+three of his staff and half a dozen correspondents pencil-driving about
+him, sat the commanding general. Before him, silent and respectful,
+stood brown-eyed, long-legged Snipe. The camp lanterns burned brightly
+on mantel and table. The sound of many voices, low-toned but impatient,
+came from without. Something had blocked the road in front, and the
+march of the rear divisions was stayed. The general was vexed, as all
+could see,--impatient and indignant. But as he read the pencilled lines,
+handed him by the adjutant-general, something like pleasure shone on his
+florid, soldierly face.
+
+"You chose the right man, Burnside," he suddenly exclaimed, as he turned
+to a stalwart, heavily whiskered officer who entered at the moment, clad
+in a pleated flannel blouse, with heavy riding-boots and breeches.
+"Look at this," he added, handing up the brief despatch. "I wish I could
+inject as much sense into some--generals." Then he turned on Snipe, his
+stern face relaxing:
+
+"You have done admirably, my lad. How old are you?"
+
+For a moment the light went out of Lawton's eyes, giving way to trouble
+and embarrassment. He twisted his forage-cap in his trembling fingers.
+At last, huskily, but with reviving hope, he answered.
+
+"I told them I was eighteen. To-night I tried to prove I was as good as
+my word."
+
+A smile went round the room. The general beamed.
+
+"You answer well, sir, and you do well. Major Stark probably can't spare
+you or you should join my head-quarters' party and wear the chevrons of
+a sergeant. Look after this young gentleman, captain, and see that he
+has coffee and supper before he starts back," he said to one of his
+aides, who had been silently gazing at the orderly's face. "Your
+regiment's time expires next week. Perhaps you would like to come to me
+then. If so, there'll be a place for you, and meanwhile the home people
+will be proud when they read in Monday's papers how their boy captured
+the first rebel officer at Bull Run."
+
+And with these words ringing in his ears, the lad was marched away to a
+shed outside where aides and officers of every rank were snatching a
+hurried bite from a camp-table, and here he was regaled with sandwiches
+and coffee, and plied with questions by men whose pencils sped like mad
+over their pads of paper, and they noted instantly his embarrassment
+when they asked him about home and parents.
+
+"I have no home," he said, simply. "My father has been dead some years.
+My mother remarried. I've been making my own way, and that's all there
+is to it." But more they would have. His name, of course, was known.
+"George Lawton, private, Company 'C,' First New England, orderly to
+Major Stark," and at last the lad said his mother lived in Rhinebeck,
+her name was Park, and then he broke away in search of the young captain
+to whose care the general had committed him. There was something oddly
+familiar about that officer's face as he greeted Snipe again.
+
+"Come in here," said he, leading the way within the hall, and thence to
+a little bedroom. Then he turned and faced the wondering lad. "Haven't I
+seen you at the Primes' in Fourteenth Street," said he, "and aren't you
+Regy Prime's--Shorty's--chum whom they called Snipe?"
+
+There was no answer for a moment, but out came both the young captain's
+hands in cordial clasp. "Why, of course you are! I was sure I had seen
+your face before. I'm one of Pop's old boys myself, and there are more
+of them round here. Shorty's uncle isn't a mile away at this minute.
+Lots more of the tribe are somewhere with the army. Why, your teacher,
+Beach, is with General Wilcox. He was a classmate of mine, and we're all
+proud of you, Snipe. Now you've got to get back to your major to-night,
+and I suppose all of us will be fighting to-morrow. However, don't you
+forget what the general said. Come to him when your regiment goes home
+next week it you want to stay in service, and go on to Richmond with
+us."
+
+Alas for soldier hope and projects! Long before the midnight hour came
+again all the general's army, some of it in mad panic, was rolling back
+on Washington. The Monday morning papers, indeed, gave thrilling account
+of the heroism of Private George Lawton in capturing at the risk of his
+life a daring young rebel officer of the famous Black Horse Cavalry.
+Then there were details of Lawton's prospective promotion, and of the
+general's complimentary remarks, and Monday morning's papers teemed,
+too, with tremendous tales of battle, and all Gotham cheered itself
+hoarse over the vivid reports of the annihilation of the rebel cavalry
+by the terrific fighters of the Fire Zouaves. But by noon came other
+tidings and a turn in the tide,--by afternoon details of fell disaster.
+"The Fire Zouaves annihilated by the cavalry!" was the way it read now.
+"Our splendid batteries swallowed up and gone." "Our army cut to
+pieces." Many generals, colonels, and captains killed. Hosts of gallant
+soldiers slain, and at last, when full reports--authentic reports--were
+published a long week later, among the wounded and missing were the
+names of Major James Stark and Corporal George Lawton, of the First New
+England, and Sergeant Keating, of the famous Fire Zouaves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+Back again through the starlit night, through dew-dripping aisles of
+shrubbery, through dark, leafy groves, with the glint of the picket's
+rifle ever before his eyes, the cautious yet excited challenge falling
+constantly upon his alert ear, time and again had Snipe to dismount and
+account for himself before he reached the outposts along the pathway to
+the north, and finally, after finding its junction with the wood road
+along which Upton had led the battalion at dusk, the lad came upon
+officers and sentries who were obdurate. Oh, yes; they believed him to
+be the young feller that twice had gone through the lines, once with the
+major and Lieutenant Upton and once with prisoners; but now he was
+alone, and how'd they know he wasn't going with information to the
+enemy, or going to be a deserter? Snipe argued and pleaded. Major Stark
+was waiting for him away out toward Sudley Ford. General McDowell
+himself and General Burnside told him he might rejoin his command. Then
+why didn't they give him a pass through the lines? was the question. The
+countersign didn't amount to shucks out along the pickets, said they.
+Anybody could get the countersign,--which wasn't altogether an
+exaggeration,--and, well, he might be all right, and then again he might
+be all wrong. It was now nearly two o'clock, the hour Upton said they
+might expect the head of column at the farm bridge, and Snipe, whose
+heart was full of glory and elation an hour before, found himself
+compelled either to wait there or retrace his weary way past all those
+inner posts again to the now crowded turnpike.
+
+He chose the latter, and after an almost perilous ride, for more than
+one raw sentinel took him for a rebel army and wanted to shoot, he
+reached the broad thoroughfare about a quarter of three, to find it
+still blocked by troops of the same general who had made the mistaken
+move on Blackburn's Ford, who was ordered to have his division on the
+road to the stone bridge and well out of the way two hours before,--the
+same fellows that "broke ranks at every blackberry-bush and spring and
+well along the route from Washington," and before the first crash of the
+shells on Thursday afternoon. Now they seemed to be lost in the darkness
+when routed out at midnight, and not until long after the proper
+time--three hours at least--could the guns of Hunter's division get the
+road; not until nearly dawn did they cross that old suspension bridge
+across Cub Run and then, turning to the right, march off into the
+fields along that guarded wood path. Not until broad daylight did the
+head of column reach the farm bridge. Then, as the sun came up hot and
+strong, and Snipe, after a long night in saddle, was able to rejoin his
+anxiously waiting major, and Stark's battalion fell in once more with
+the left wing of the New-Englanders and followed in the wake of
+Burnside's Rhode Island battery, the long column moved on, snake-like,
+through fields wherein the dew too soon gave way to dust, and not until
+nine o'clock, heated, weary, hungry, after nine hours of exasperating
+delays, of alternate halt and march, were the leading files plashing
+through Sudley Ford. There stood the little church, and this was Sunday
+morning, and these silent, solemn fellows who came plodding up the
+southern bank on the trail of the gun-wheels were of the old Puritan
+stock, but there was no halt or time for worship. McDowell himself,
+commander of the army, had accompanied the turning column that by this
+long, circuitous path had essayed to make safe crossing of Bull Run and
+bear down on the rebel left, while the rest of the army waited in front
+of the stone bridge. Only twenty-eight thousand men all told, with
+twenty-nine guns and a single battalion of cavalry, had the Union
+general with which to assault in their chosen position thirty-two
+thousand enthusiastic Southerners with fifty-seven guns.
+
+No wonder there was anxiety in the wearied eyes of the Union leaders, as
+at last the little division of General Hunter deployed in the fields
+south of Sudley Ford and came cautiously feeling its way onward,
+Porter's brigade on the right of the road, Burnside's on the left, the
+Rhode Island battery jogging along the dirt track and watching for a
+chance to form forward into line. After the battery rode the grizzled
+old colonel of the New-Englanders, and after him trudged the long column
+of his silent men; and with the left wing rode Major Stark, and ever at
+his heels rode Snipe. How slow seemed the advance! how tedious the
+incessant halts and waits while somebody reconnoitred! and at last,
+issuing from the woods, they saw before them a long ridge running east
+and west between the road on which they were marching and the winding
+stream away off to the east, and out in the intervening open were two of
+Burnside's regiments in line of battle, slowly moving southward, and on
+the west side Porter's infantry was filing into the fields, and in
+regimental succession facing south and following the general move.
+Nearly a mile ahead, until lost behind that ridge, they could see the
+trees and walls and fences bordering a straight line across their front
+that they knew must be the turnpike they had quit a mile or so west of
+Centreville, and now, having left it behind them there, here they were
+facing it again with four regiments, at least, in battle line parallel
+with its general direction. Off to the right front it gently rose and
+was lost among groves and trees. Directly ahead it dipped into a sort of
+hollow where a little stream came purling out from the wooded uplands
+farther on. "Young's Branch, they call that," Snipe heard the major say
+to Captain Flint. There were a few farm-houses and enclosures down near
+the crossing of the pike. Then the road they had been following could be
+seen red and dry rising toward the south, running straight away for
+Manassas Junction, until it disappeared over the wooded crest another
+mile beyond the pike. East of this road the ground rose abruptly to a
+broad open plateau, skirted east, southeast, and south by a
+semi-circular fringe of thick woods. At the edge of the plateau, and
+near the bold, bluff-like slopes leading up to it, were two roomy houses
+of brick and stone, surrounded by fruit-trees and gardens,--one away up
+almost overhanging the pike, the other well down to the south, closer to
+the wood road they had been following from Sudley Springs,--the first
+the Robinson, the other the Henry house. From which of these were they
+signalling last night? was the question that went from lip to lip.
+Eleven o'clock, and though there had been some sound of musketry down
+toward the stone bridge, and the big thirty-pounder gun had let drive a
+shell or two into the woods, and there had been some popping of rifles
+among the skirmishers well ahead, not a uniformed force of rebels had
+the New-Englanders seen, unless some scattering horsemen galloping
+through distant lanes could be so regarded. Out in front of Burnside's
+ranks a long thin line of skirmishers was now making for the curtaining
+ridge in front of the pike, and all on a sudden a pale blue smoke-cloud,
+like a long string of cotton wool, flew along that crest as though the
+command fire was given from the far right, and the nervous, waiting
+fingers pulled trigger as the order came, borne on the hot, sluggish,
+summer air. Snipe's heart gave a great leap as he saw the dust fly up in
+a hundred places just back of the distant skirmish line and the
+skirmishers themselves, with much alacrity, come sprinting back to the
+line, and then there was prodigious waving of swords and shouting of
+orders and galloping furiously about on part of field-officers who had
+never before smelled powder, much unnecessary exciting of their men,
+much whoop and hurrah on part of the advanced line, despite the efforts
+of the few veterans to set the example of calm and quiet. The instant
+the skirmishers came ducking in out of the way the long battle line
+opened a rattling fire upon the ridge, doing tremendous havoc along the
+hill-side, if one could judge by the rising dust, but finding no
+lodgment among its hidden defenders. Then a field-gun banged somewhere
+over east of the ridge, and a shell, whizzing overhead, burst with a
+puff and crash among the trees back of Burnside's reserve, and hundreds
+of men crouched instinctively and sprang back laughing loud and
+nervously. And then another gun, over by the pike, west of the ridge,
+barked angry challenge, and sent its shell whistling over among Porter's
+men, and the battle lines broke anew into rattling, crashing fusillade,
+known as the "fire at will," and then, instead of pushing straight
+onward as they would be doing another year, the two brigades halted
+short and took to long-range shooting. Then Snipe saw the battery ahead
+of them beginning to joggle, and the next thing "Forward, double quick,"
+was repeated along the column, and off to the left front across the
+fields the snorting teams went galloping, the guns bounding, the
+cannoneers racing after them, and the adjutant came running back afoot
+to shout something to Major Stark, who still rode, grim and silent,
+along the advancing column. Up to this moment the only thing Snipe had
+heard him say since the first volley was. "Steady, men. Keep quiet.
+Listen for orders." Now he turned round. "Ride back, Lawton; find the
+ammunition-wagon and bring it up. It's the colonel's order."
+
+They are half across the field at the moment. The air is ringing with
+the blare of battery bugles and the sputter of file-firing. Smoke is
+drifting across the eager column of New-Englanders, and there are queer
+whistlings on the wind as Snipe, digging spurs into his tired horse's
+ribs, whirls about and goes darting back to the Sudley road. But there
+he has to draw rein. The narrow track is blocked. With set faces, but
+flashing eyes, a battalion of regulars is hastening forward. Then, with
+cracking whips and straining traces, strong, mettlesome horses prancing
+in the fulness of their strength and spirit, Griffin's West Point
+battery comes tearing through the lane. Wagons, either of ammunition or
+rations, or even ambulances, are cut off somewhere far to the rear. Able
+only to move at the trot, halted every now and then, and forced aside,
+sometimes even compelled by over-zealous officers to halt and explain
+why he is going to the rear, Snipe is full half an hour passing the
+batteries and battalions of Heintzelman's division pressing forward into
+action. Well-nigh another half-hour is he in finding the needed wagon
+and compelling its reluctant negro drivers to whip their startled mules
+out into the track. It is after one o'clock when at last he comes
+spurring out upon the open field again, and now, what a change in the
+picture! General Hunter has been borne to the rear, wounded, but the
+thin line of the rebels has fallen back to the plateau beyond the
+Robinson place, the splendid regular batteries are far over on an open
+field near the Dogan house, to the north of the turnpike, hurling shell
+upon the retiring rebel lines. Some of Burnside's command, still halted,
+are apparently repairing damages, but one regiment has gone on, and with
+tumultuous cheers the Union men are pressing up the slopes at both the
+Robinson and Henry houses, the New-Englanders somewhere with them.
+
+The road is blocked in front, the fields are strewn here and there with
+little groups hanging about prostrate soldiers, killed or wounded, and
+Snipe nibbles at a hardtack to still that queer feeling of faintness
+that again assails him when he recognizes among the pallid wounded a
+lieutenant of his own company. Before he can find words to speak he
+hears the voice of the adjutant, and that young officer has a
+handkerchief bound about his head and blood is trickling down his neck.
+"Ride forward," he says. "The regiment is straight ahead over that first
+ridge, and the major needs his horse. Yonder lies the other. I'll bring
+up the wagon."
+
+There is a lull in the fight as Snipe goes riding along in rear of the
+battle line, seeking the New-Englanders. Other brigades have crossed the
+run, and now the Fire Zouaves are marching in column toward the regular
+batteries, and right at the edge of the pike Snipe finds his old
+regiment, with Stark in rear of the right wing. Lieutenant-Colonel
+Proctor is gone, shot dead, say the rearmost men, as they were crossing
+the ridge behind them, though that, happily, turns out later to be
+untrue. The major, however, has secured his late superior's horse, and
+gravely bids his orderly welcome with the other. Far over along that
+semicircular fringe of woods to the southeast an exultant chorus of
+yells is rising, and a staff-officer, riding by, says something about
+the rebs trying to keep their spirits up. But the dust is rolling in
+heavy clouds along the Manassas road, and the captured wounded, and
+prisoners overhauled during the triumphant forward movement of the Union
+line, long delayed though it was, say that they are of Johnston's army
+from the Shenandoah. Then all Beauregard's must be yet to come. Are
+they the ones now doing all this cheering? Snipe, dismounted and holding
+both drooping horses, stands watching the faces of his gray-haired
+colonel and his beloved major, now in earnest, low-voiced conference,
+and it is plain to see, if not to hear, that the former is far from
+satisfied at the way things have gone. Over an hour passes without
+another forward movement, although long columns continue arriving from
+the direction of the fords just above Bull Run, the fords discovered by
+General Sherman. Many of the regiments right and left are tossing caps
+and hats in air, cheering like mad, and demanding the word to advance
+and finish up the rebels. The steady cannonade of the Union guns has
+been stopped. The batteries suddenly limber up and move deliberately out
+upon the pike, then turn southward into that road leading toward
+Manassas, and next are seen breasting the slopes to their left, marching
+up the height, Ricketts well in front, Griffin some distance in rear,
+and when they disappear over the edge of the plateau south of the Henry
+house, the Zouaves and some other regiment following rather slowly in
+support, the colonel ventures to say that those batteries will be in
+mischief before they are quarter of an hour older. Twenty minutes more
+and they are heard again, reopening in fury upon the enemy unseen by the
+halted battalions here under the Robinson bluff. And now it is after
+two, long after, and brigades from Tyler's first division, fording the
+run above the stone bridge, are strengthening the attack. Sherman,
+Howard, Wilcox, all are there. Victory seems assured if only the line
+may advance, crown those heights, sweep the plateau where now the
+batteries stand almost alone, and drive the yelling rebels from the
+woods. A dense smoke-cloud rises over the thundering guns. Who can
+withstand so fierce a cannonade? Snipe, too, wants to toss his cap in
+air and cheer, but the anxiety in his colonel's face forbids. Thicker
+grows that shrouding smoke-cloud, heavier the thunder, but louder,
+clearer, and nearer the crash of musketry, the chorus of exultant yells.
+Surely there should be an infantry division, at least, to line that
+crest and support those guns, say veteran soldiers, and all too late the
+order comes. Out from the woods to the right of the twin batteries
+issues a long, well-ordered line of troops, commanded by a general who
+knows his trade. Straight, swift, and silent, in through the hanging
+smoke, he drives them. Instantly at sight of them the nearest battery
+commander whirls his muzzles around to deluge them with canister.
+Instantly from his misguided senior comes the order, "Don't fire. Those
+are our friends." Quick the reply, "They are Confederates! As sure as
+the world, they are Confederates!" But Griffin, certain as he is, can
+but obey when Barry sternly says, "They are our own supports. You must
+not fire!" Already half of Ricketts's horses and many of his men are
+down when that menacing line suddenly halts, aims, and at short range
+pours in one fearful volley that rips through the batteries like a flash
+of lightning. Down go dozens more,--officers, gunners, drivers,
+cannoneers, horses,--and then, in wild panic, what are left of the poor,
+affrighted beasts turn short about, and, snorting with terror, despite
+every effort of the drivers, come tearing down the slopes, limbers and
+caissons bounding after them, straight through the ranks of the startled
+supports; the precious, priceless guns, the stricken wounded, the heroic
+dead, the gallant officers, abandoned to their fate. Brave as they were
+in face of fire at home, this was something the Zouaves had never
+dreamed of. No Ellsworth raged among them now, holding them to their
+duty. One wild volley they fire, mostly in the air, and down, too, they
+come, streaming like sheep along the hill-side, leaping the stone wall
+and scattering for shelter. The panic of Bull Run has begun. Down among
+the scary mules of the wagons tear the riderless battery horses, and
+away go darky drivers, mules, and all. Vain the dash of generals to the
+front, ordering regiments and brigades to charge and retake the guns,
+now being dragged to the woods. The rebel lines are mad with joy, drunk
+with triumph, invincible against the half-hearted assaults that follow.
+No longer is there any concerted effort on the Northern side. Some Union
+regiments, indeed, charge home, only to find themselves isolated,
+abandoned right and left by less disciplined comrades. Twice the
+New-Englanders breast that fire-flashing slope, their gray-haired old
+colonel cheering them on. Twice they come drifting back, bringing their
+scores of wounded with them; but when, at last, with tears coursing down
+his powder-blackened cheeks, Burnside tells them all is over, and to
+follow the retreat, it is the old Covenanter, Flint, who leads the
+remnant from the field. Their colonel, limp and senseless from loss of
+blood, is borne away on the muskets of a squad of wearied men. The
+major, pinned under his dying horse close to the Henry house, is
+surrounded by a throng of rebels when the right gives way. If not dead,
+he and Snipe are prisoners, for the last seen of the youngster he is
+trying to drag the major out and get him on another horse, even while
+the rebels are swarming all about them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+In the month that followed the panic and disaster of Bull Run the nation
+seemed to realize at last what was before it. "Little Mac," the idol of
+the soldiery, had been summoned to Washington to organize and command
+the rapidly arriving regiments of volunteers,--splendid regiments from
+all over the Northland, and though the flag of rebellion waved on
+Munson's Hill, in full view of the unfinished dome of the Capitol, and
+every afternoon the Southern bands played "Dixie," in full hearing of
+the guards to the approaches of the Long Bridge, the Southern generals
+were wise and refrained from farther advance.
+
+Within that month, too, almost all the officers and many of the men
+reported missing after the battle were accounted for. Many turned up
+safe and sound, if much "demoralized." Many were heard of as at Libby
+and Belle Isle, the Richmond prisons, but not one word of any kind came
+from Major Stark, not a thing could be learned of his devoted orderly,
+appointed corporal, said the survivors of Stark's battalion, the very
+morning of the battle. The New-Englanders had gone home with the thanks
+of the President and Secretary of War for their gallant conduct at the
+battle, and their faithful service days after their time had expired.
+The gray-haired colonel, though still unable to remount and take command
+in the field, had been made a brigadier-general. Flint reappeared at the
+front as lieutenant-colonel of the reorganized regiment. Everybody said
+that Major Stark would have been made its colonel had he survived.
+
+In Gotham there was grief in many a household, but there was trouble in
+the Lawrences'. Poor Mrs. Park, as was to be expected, could give them
+little peace. "Everybody" now knew that the youthful captor, so lauded
+in the papers, of the young Confederate cavalryman was the George Lawton
+who had fled from Aunt Lawrence's roof rather than listen to more
+upbraidings. Mrs. Park had first gone wild with pride, exultation, and
+delight when the Monday morning _Herald_ reached her,--and then to New
+York and Aunt Lawrence the very next day. And there she learned the
+later news, and stayed a dreadful fortnight, dreadful for herself and
+everybody else. One thing, at least, was comfort to the younger sister,
+and comfort she certainly needed now,--the mother steadfastly refused to
+believe her boy was dead. What she wished to do and what perhaps she
+would have done, but that her husband came and forbade, was to go to
+Washington and lay siege to the War Department. Mrs. Park could see no
+just reason why the government should not send forth a strong column to
+scour and scourge Virginia until "the Mother of the Presidents"
+surrendered her boy. School was closed for the summer. The First Latin
+had passed its examinations, matriculated at Columbia, and was to start
+as freshmen in the fall, minus two members at least, Hoover, who had
+apparently abandoned his academic career, and had not been seen around
+New York, and Briggs, ignominiously "flunked" at the examination. Two
+others of its list were spoken of as duly admitted should they return to
+the fold in time to enter with the class,--Snipe Lawton and Shorty
+Prime. Where the first was no one could conjecture. Where the second was
+everybody knew, as Shorty took good care they should, if letters could
+accomplish it. There wasn't a happier lad in all the lines around
+Washington as August wore on, and the army "got its second wind"--and
+reinforcements. Short and small as he was, he rode as big a horse as
+anybody, and had reached almost the pinnacle of his boyish ambitions. He
+had been made mounted orderly at brigade head-quarters, and could ask no
+more, except that Snipe should know, and Snipe should turn up safe and
+sound.
+
+The Doctor's wisdom had prevailed. The scare that followed Shorty's
+disappearance was short as he. Ellsworth was organizing the Fire Zouaves
+at the time, and the lad, in longing and misery and in envy of Snipe's
+inches, had stolen away to the old haunt at "40's" house down in Elm
+Street to beg the boys to tell their enthusiastic young colonel how well
+he could drum and how mad he was to go. He was home again by midnight,
+and late to school and lax in conduct and lessons the following day. It
+was all settled within a week, and as the Doctor had advised, and almost
+crazy with joy the youngster was hurried on to the capital to join his
+soldier kindred, was welcomed and set to work to teach other and bigger
+boys the army calls and beats for the snare-drum, and then, along in
+August, the general, for whom he had run many an errand and delivered
+many a message, ordered him to duty at head-quarters and set him in
+saddle.
+
+Then presently McClellan found himself strong enough to risk a slight
+forward movement, and two brigades crossed the Potomac one night in face
+of the pickets at Chain Bridge, and, hardly waiting for dawn, began
+tossing up earthworks on the heights beyond, and here the saucy rebels
+came and "felt" the pickets and, riding through the wood lanes, made
+some effort to dislodge them, but there was evidently heavy force behind
+those strong picket-posts, and though rifles and revolvers were popping
+day and night all along the guarded lines from the Potomac below
+Alexandria to the Potomac above Chain Bridge, no real attempt was made
+by the "Johnnies" to push through at any point. Night after night, at
+first, gay young gallants from the Southern lines would mount their
+horses and ride out ahead just to "stir up the Yanks," and then there
+would be no end of a bobbery along the front, picket firing in every
+direction and the long roll in every camp, and everybody would turn out
+under arms and form line on the designated parade-ground, and stand and
+shiver and say unpublishable and improper things for an hour or more,
+and then go back to bed disgusted. After a week or so at this the
+colonels would no longer form line, but let the companies muster in
+their respective streets in camp, and the long waits were reduced to an
+hour, and then to a half, and in course of a fortnight it became
+difficult even to rouse a drummer when the long roll was actually
+ordered. And when the sputter and crackle of musketry began far out at
+the picket-posts in the dead hours of the night, men in camp would roll
+over and grunt something to the effect that those fellows were making
+dashed fools of themselves again. And so by the end of August it became
+a sign of "scare" or "nerves" when pickets began firing at night, and
+when Shorty's brigade took post along those densely wooded heights and
+had got fairly shaken down to business, matters at the front, out toward
+the hamlet of Lewinsville and the lanes to Vienna and Ball's
+Cross-Roads, became almost professionally placid and disciplined, and
+the lad was in a sort of military seventh heaven, trotting about with
+orders and despatches, recognized and passed without check at almost
+all the posts of the main guards, where even officers below certain
+grades had to show their permits, welcomed at every regimental camp for
+the news and gossip he could bring,--ay, and it must be owned, for items
+much more stimulating than even the latest rumors from the War
+Department, for Shorty was many a time the bearer of despatches to
+McClellan's head-quarters or the office of some high dignitary in the
+city, and his saddle-bags were never inspected by provost-marshals and
+patrols, and, now that the sutlers were forbidden to sell the fiery
+liquids of the first weeks of the war, many a flask of forbidden
+"commissary" found its way to some favored tent among the brigade lines,
+and in return, when Sergeant This or Corporal That was out on picket,
+the lad was sure of friends at court when he strove for a peep outside
+the lines, and one of his absorbing crazes was to ascertain what might
+be going on around that mysterious hamlet, nearly two miles out there in
+the lovely Virginia slopes beyond the pickets.
+
+The fact is that Shorty was consumed with ambition to "do something"
+like Snipe. He envied his former chum the distinction of that capture of
+Lieutenant Grayson infinitely more than he envied "Little Mac" the
+command of the army. Just to think that the first Confederate officer
+caught in front of Washington should turn out to be a first cousin of
+the very Graysons who were with them at school! Just to think that it
+should be Snipe of all others--Snipe, a First Latin boy--to make the
+capture! Just to think that Snipe should have been all through Bull Run,
+while he, Shorty, was far to the rear where he could only hear the
+thunder of the guns and the tales of the stragglers! Just to think that
+the old men in the reorganized New-Englanders declared that Snipe was
+the best soldier in the ranks of Company "C" if he was the
+youngest!--Snipe who couldn't shoot a gun six months ago without
+shutting his eyes, and who would rather fish all day or figure out
+equations than follow the band of the Seventh itself! Just to think that
+the old colonel's written report of Bull Run should include among the
+few names of those deserving especial credit and commendation that of
+Corporal George Lawton, Company "C," "who sacrificed himself in the
+heroic effort to save Major Stark from death or capture, and was last
+seen fighting hard over his prostrate body,"--Snipe who used to turn
+sick at sight of a fist fight, even though he was the "bulliest" first
+baseman the Uncas ever had.
+
+Time and again the general's diminutive orderly would ride to Colonel
+Flint to inquire if any news had been heard, and to talk with the old
+men of Company "C" about his chum. There were two drawbacks to this. It
+began to bore Flint, who felt a trifle jealous of the praises sung of
+Stark, and it gave the New-Englanders abundant opportunity to chaff the
+lad about his old friends, the Fire Zouaves, whose conduct or
+misconduct at Bull Run was the subject of the derision of the "steady"
+regiments of the army. It wasn't that the "b'hoys" lacked nerve,
+stamina, courage. They had lost their soldierly little colonel, shot
+dead by a fanatic the very day they entered Alexandria. There was no one
+to discipline them, with Ellsworth gone, and the bravest men in the
+world are of no account in battle except when acting in disciplined
+unison. Other regiments ran down that hill as hard as did the Fire
+Zouaves, and without half the provocation; but everybody pitched on the
+red shirts and made them the scapegoats because they had come with such
+a tremendous swagger and had boasted so much. Shorty believed in his old
+friends and stood up for them, and lost his temper and said things to
+the New-Englanders in turn that they didn't like. "How came it that you
+could stand and see your major down with a dozen rebs around him and
+make no effort at rescue?" he demanded, and this was a home thrust that
+made many men wince, and at last it leaked out somehow, as such things
+will, that none of the left wing saw or heard of it until too late. The
+smoke was thick. They were falling back as ordered, but the senior
+captain had been wounded and sent to the rear. Flint was acting as wing
+commander, and when two companies on the right begged their officers,
+after the confusion, to let them rush back and bring off the major,
+Flint himself refused. "We have lost far more now than our share," he
+said, "and the general orders us back."
+
+And still there lived among the New-Englanders that abiding faith that
+the honored major was not dead and would yet be heard from. "And when he
+is," said Shorty, "you can bet your buttons Snipe and Sergeant Keating
+will prove to be the ones that pulled him out, and they were firemen."
+
+The fact of the matter is that Shorty was getting "too big for his
+boots," as Colonel Flint began to say. He was indulged and spoiled to
+such an extent by guards and sentries around Chain Bridge, greeted so
+cordially by generals and colonels, and hailed with such confident
+familiarity by the line, that the youngster's head was probably not a
+little inflated. He was getting "cheeky," said a spectacled
+adjutant-general of a neighboring brigade. "He talks too much," said
+staff-officers about their own head-quarters. "He'll run up against
+somebody some day that'll take the shine off him if he isn't more
+careful with that big horse of his," said a certain few, who hated a
+horseman on general principles; and this proved a true prediction.
+
+The big bay ridden by Shorty had a very hard mouth, and when once he got
+going it was a most difficult thing to stop him. Galloping about the
+neighborhood of Chain Bridge, where almost everybody knew the youngster
+as the general's orderly, it made little difference (although an irate
+Green Mountain boy of Baldy Smith's brigade did threaten to bayonet him
+if he ever galloped over his post again); so, too, on the road to
+Washington, where permanent guards were placed at different points.
+But, to put an end to straggling and visiting town without authority,
+the provost-marshal had taken to sending patrols here, there, and
+everywhere in Georgetown and Washington with orders to halt every
+soldier and examine his pass. The regular infantry, now recruited to a
+war footing, were assigned, much to their disgust, to patrol duty. A
+number of new regiments of regulars were being raised. A number of the
+New York Seventh and other crack regiments of the militia reappeared at
+the front with the uniforms and commissions of lieutenants in the
+regular army. It even happened that not a few young fellows who had
+never even served in the militia, and who knew nothing whatever of duty
+or discipline of any kind, had secured through family or political
+influence, which the administration was glad to cultivate, commissions
+denied to better men, and these young fellows were now wearing their
+first swords, sashes, and shoulder-straps in the onerous duty of running
+down the merry-makers from surrounding camps, who, dodging the guards,
+had managed to make a way to town.
+
+One night there came a heavy storm, and down went the telegraph line.
+Morning broke, radiant after the deluge. The Potomac had risen in its
+might and swept away some bridge and crib work as well as certain
+pontoons. The general wrote a despatch to army head-quarters, and called
+up Shorty. "Gallop with that," said he, "and don't stop for anything."
+
+What the general meant was, don't stop for breakfast or nonsense, but
+the lad took it literally. He and "Badger" were a sight to behold when
+they came tearing into the main street of Georgetown about eight
+o'clock. Badger was blowing a bit, after laboring through nearly five
+miles of thick mud, but, once he struck the cobble-stones and sent the
+last lumps of clay flying behind him, he took a new grip on the bit and
+lunged ahead as though on a race for his life, Shorty sitting him close
+and riding "hands down" and head too, his uniform besmeared, but his
+grit and wind untouched.
+
+Out came the regulars at the second cross street. "Halt! Halt!" were the
+shouted orders, but Shorty's instructions were to stop for nothing, and
+he couldn't stop short of three blocks anyhow, no matter how much he
+might want to. Past the first soldiers he shot like a dart, but their
+yells resounded down the avenue, and out came others,--too late at the
+second crossing but formidably prompt at the third. Two of them levelled
+their bayonets, a third making ready to leap at the reins. In vain
+Shorty reached in his saddle-bag and brandished his papers and yelled,
+"Despatch for General McClellan! Ordered not to stop!" The soldiers
+could not or would not understand, so he had to lie back and tug at the
+reins; but "Badger" only pricked up his ears at sight of the human
+obstacles, and when six great strides brought him close to them, made a
+magnificent dash to one side, and left them raging behind. But now all
+the avenue seemed alive with blue coats and bayonets. A dozen men lined
+up at the next crossing, and with a sob of rage and dismay, Shorty
+realized that they'd bayonet Badger rather than let him defy orders, and
+so, with all his might and main he pulled, and at last, plunging,
+panting, heaving, and sweating, the splendid brute was brought to a
+halt, two or three big Irish infantrymen at his head, while, scowling
+and threatening, others came thronging around him.
+
+"Come down aff the top o' dthat harrse!" shouted a Milesian veteran who
+knew his trade.
+
+"Despatches for General McClellan! Most important!" panted Shorty.
+"Ordered not to lose a minute----"
+
+"Ah-h-h! none av yer guff! Who'd be sendin' anything 'portant by the
+likes av you? Tumble off, Tom Thumb!" and the sergeant had seized the
+official envelope and was trying to lug it away.
+
+"Don't you dare touch that!" almost screamed the lad. "I tell you, I'm a
+general's orderly!"
+
+But for answer the sergeant thrust a brawny hand under the hooded
+stirrup, and with sudden hoist sent Shorty tumbling over to the other
+side. Furious at the indignity, he grasped the mane and let drive a
+skilful and well-aimed kick at the Irishman's head, which the latter
+ducked and dodged only in the nick of time. More patrolmen came running
+to the spot,--corporals and sergeants whose orders had been
+defied,--and in less than a minute the bumptious youngster was dragged
+from his horse and led fuming to the sidewalk, just as there appeared at
+the doorway of the corner building the spruce and dapper figure of the
+youthful officer of the guard, his uniform spick and span, his sash and
+sword and gloves of the daintiest make.
+
+"Now, then, you young tarrier, make yer manners an' tell yer lies to yer
+betthers!" said the big sergeant, half grinning as he spoke, his hand on
+Shorty's collar all the time. The throng of soldiers gave way right and
+left, their white-gloved left hands striking the promptly shouldered
+muskets in salute to their young superior, and then, covered with mud,
+flushed with wrath and the sense of his wrongs, writhing in the grasp of
+his captor, Shorty Prime stood staring into the pallid features, the
+shifting, beady eyes, the twitching, bluish lips of the butt of the
+First Latin and the whole school,--Polyblasphemous in the garb of a
+second lieutenant of the regular infantry.
+
+Dead silence for a moment, then,--
+
+"Put him in the cell," said Hoover, and turned loftily away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+There is not room in this brief chronicle to tell the story of Shorty
+Prime's sensations this eventful day. Wrath, amazement, burning shame,
+and indignation, all were struggling for utterance, but, above all, at
+the moment the youngster felt the importance of the despatch of which he
+was bearer, the need for its immediate forwarding to general
+head-quarters. His steaming, hard-panting horse had been led one way and
+he himself, to his unspeakable rage, had been hustled, protesting,
+through a grimy hall, past groups of grinning soldiery, a burly sergeant
+fairly rushing him into the square court beyond, never loosing his hold
+on the collar, and then, as Shorty still kicked, struggled, and
+protested, reinforcing that grasp by nipping the boy's left ear with
+thumb and forefinger of the other hand. The precious despatch had been
+torn from his grasp, despite his stout resistance. Even in his rage he
+had sense enough to refrain from any denunciation of the lieutenant,
+but against the laughing Irishman who had dared to address him as Tom
+Thumb Shorty launched a torrent of threat and invective. It was only
+with the utmost difficulty that he could repress the flood of passionate
+tears that a year before would have overcome him. The storm of sobs that
+seemed imminent would only have made him ridiculous and rejoiced his
+captors the more, so with all his strength he fought against it. He
+demanded his release. He declared again that he had only obeyed his
+orders. He gave his name and that of his general, and insisted that
+every man who had treated him with indignity would suffer for it. At
+first they only laughed the more, as he was led across the
+stone-flagged, sunlit court, on three sides of which were heavily barred
+and latticed "cells," or rather alcoves, many of them occupied by
+disconsolate stragglers. But, even as a corporal was unlocking one of
+these and throwing open the gate, there came stalking majestically over
+from a little office on the east side a tall man whose upper lip, chin,
+and cheeks were shaved after the fashion of the Mexican war days, who
+still wore the high black leather stock at the throat, whose buttons
+glistened, every one in its place, and whose sleeves were decorated with
+the chevrons of a first sergeant.
+
+"Let go that ear," he said, in quiet tone, and jeer and laughter ceased.
+"Who ordered this?" he asked.
+
+"The lieutenant, sir," answered Shorty's conductor, obeying instantly,
+and speaking with a deference much exceeding that which he had shown to
+the suckling subaltern commanding the guard.
+
+"Who did you say you were?" asked the veteran regular, professionally
+grave, his steely blue eyes seeming to penetrate beneath the mud with
+which Shorty's face and dress were smeared.
+
+"Mounted orderly at brigade head-quarters, Chain Bridge," came Shorty's
+quick answer, as he stifled his rising sobs. "Ordered to get my
+despatches to General McClellan and stop for nothing. The river's washed
+away the pontoons----"
+
+"Where is the despatch? Let go that collar, Sergeant Hanley," and Shorty
+stood released.
+
+"Stolen from me by these----" And Shorty gulps. Even now he knows it
+won't do to call names. "I told them my orders. I begged them, and the
+officer of the guard, to let me----"
+
+"What did you do with them?" interrupted the sergeant, glowering at
+Hanley.
+
+"Sure I don't know, sergeant. The lootenent ordered him into the cells.
+He was sassin' everybody."
+
+"I never said a wrong word to the lieutenant," burst in Shorty,
+indignant that he should be accused of disrespectful language to an
+officer, no matter how much contempt he might feel for the individual.
+
+"What became of the despatch, I say?" demanded the first sergeant,
+frowning around upon the now silent circle.
+
+"Corcoran took it, sir," ventured a young soldier, presently.
+
+"Go you and fetch Corcoran," were the sergeant's instant orders to
+Hanley, and the big Irishman lunged away. Here was a power indeed! the
+majesty of the discipline of the old army as exemplified in the first
+sergeant of thirty years' service. "Bring that bench, and water, soap,
+and towel," was the next order, short and crisp, and two young recruits
+jumped to obey. In a minute the bench, with a tin basin, a bucket with
+fresh water, and towel and soap were placed before the bedraggled lad.
+
+"Wash," said the sergeant, and Shorty pulled off his jacket and flannel
+shirt and tossed them, with his natty cap, to the pavement. "Pick those
+up and clean 'em," said the sergeant, and a soldier whipped them off the
+flags, while the lad buried his hot face in the brimming bowl. It cooled
+and steadied him and gave him time to think,--time to recover breath and
+wits and self-control. Corporal Corcoran was marched in by Hanley,
+looking queer. The tall sergeant gazed about at the circle of listening
+private soldiers. Non-commissioned officers, said the regulations, must
+never be rebuked in presence of the men. It weakens their authority.
+"Get you out of this, all of you!" was his order, and they stood not on
+the order of their going, but were gone in less time than it takes to
+tell it.
+
+"Where's the papers you took from this--young man?"
+
+"Sure I put 'em on the officer of the guard's table, sir."
+
+"Where's he?"
+
+"Gone to breakfast, sir."
+
+If the sergeant had then and there ordered Corcoran to "go and fetch the
+lieutenant," Corcoran would have gone and tried, and it wouldn't have
+surprised Shorty. "Fetch me my cap," he said instead; then turning to
+the prisoner, now rubbing hard with the towel, he continued in the same
+crisp, curt tones.
+
+"Obey orders. Sit in there," and he pointed to the open cage, "till I
+come back. I'll see to the despatches."
+
+And though still raging over his misfortunes, measurably relieved,
+Shorty saw him stride away through the dark hall, saw how the soldiers'
+eyes followed him, how at the outer gate the loungers stood up as he
+passed by. Then, without a word to the Irishmen or another word from
+them, Shorty stepped into the wooden-barred cage and sat him down upon
+the wooden bench, still rubbing with the now grimy towel. A change had
+come over the situation. Corcoran presently slipped away and speedily
+reappeared with a clean towel, which he handed to Shorty with a queer
+mingling of anxiety and bravado in his manner, and as silently took the
+soiled one away. Hanley, after a minute's perturbed pondering over the
+matter, scratched his head and slunk--there is no other word for
+it--into the neighboring barrack-room. Over in one of the other cells a
+drunken soldier had set up a maudlin song, and it was a relief to the
+big sergeant's soul to stop and tell him to shut up. Four or five other
+prisoners, each in his own barred cage on the west side, were standing
+or sitting and peering out into the court, curious spectators of the
+scene. The cages or cells to Shorty's right seemed to be empty. But
+presently there came a soft knocking and scratching on the boards that
+separated him from the occupant of the one on his right. Lumber was
+bought in a hurry that summer, much of it only half seasoned. The planks
+had warped and shrunk. There was a wide crack, and at that crack
+appeared an eye, and through that crack came the whisper of "Shorty,
+Shorty. Don't ye know me?"
+
+Some of our brigade, thought the lad, as he edged up to the wooden wall.
+Some poor fellow overstaying pass. "Who is it?" he asked.
+
+"Don't ye remember Desmond, 28's Engine?"
+
+"Desmond! Of course. Why, what brought you here?"
+
+"The same squint-eyed, pasty-faced pup that did you, I s'pose. Sa-ay,
+Shorty, _you_'re all right. They can't keep you 'soon as they know who
+you are. The officer of the day comes at nine o'clock and you'll be let
+off all right. But I'm in a hole. Say a good word for me. Help me out,
+and I can tell you things about that school you'd give a heap to know.
+Remember the day of the fire in Twenty-fifth Street?--the day the peeler
+wasn't going to let you pass, and I pulled you through?"
+
+How could the lad forget it! A policeman had tried to drive him back
+when he would have worked his way up along 28's line of hose, and
+Desmond gave him the big nozzle to take forward to the pipeman. Of
+course he remembered it, and how proud he was that when it came to
+"soaking down," and the big nozzle was screwed on in place of the
+three-quarter inch, the wearied pipeman let him take hold. Of course he
+remembered.
+
+"But how'd you get here?" he asked. "How'd you know me so quick?"
+
+"Lord! I seen you every day for a week when we were camped near you up
+there at Kalorama. Second Fire Zouaves I'm in,--Major Moriarty. We was
+down here on a frolic the other night, an' could 'a' got back all right,
+but there was a fire on the avenue, an' we piled out onto an engine, an'
+when the fire was out the fellers took us round to their house and
+salooned us to the best in the market, an' the next thing the patrol got
+us, and this shanghai lieutenant out here shoved us into the cells for
+offerin' to lam him in front of the guard. Sa-ay, ain't I seen that
+feller smokin' cigarettes round the stable next the school? If 'tain't
+him, it's like enough to him to be his twin brother. If 'tis him, you
+get me out of this and I can tell you things you and Snipe ought to
+know. Lay low, Shorty; here comes that big shanghai sergeant. Sa-ay,
+ain't he a rooster? Do what you can for us, boy, will you?"
+
+And there was no time for more. Straight to the cage the sergeant
+stalked, and for the life of him Shorty couldn't help standing
+attention, as he did to his brigadier-general.
+
+"I got those despatches," said the sergeant, "and sent them right on,
+and I've sent word to the officer of the day, and he'll be here
+presently. Better let me explain. You're too excited yet."
+
+And under ordinary circumstances such might, indeed, have been the wiser
+course, but there were other surprises in store for Shorty and his
+guardians too. Even while the tall sergeant was asking certain questions
+there came the hoarse cry of the sentry in front of the building, "Turn
+out the guard! Officer of the day!" There was a scurry of feet, a
+banging of musket-butts, a word of command, a clash of steel, and after
+a moment or two of parley without there came through the dark hallway an
+officer whom Shorty saw to be a captain of infantry. His sash was old
+and weather-stained, his uniform a trifle shabby, but in every move
+there was the ease and swing of the old soldier. Hurrying after and
+ranging up beside him came another, an officer whose sash, belt, and
+dress were as spick and span, new and glossy as those of the officer of
+the guard, an officer who looked a trifle less at home in them than did
+the veteran on his right, but at sight of his face the light danced up
+in Shorty's eyes, and, forgetful of discipline, of regulation, of
+martial etiquette, propriety, he sprang forward with a cry of joy.
+Barely four months earlier, from his perch on the lamp-post and through
+blinding tears, the boy had marked him striding down Broadway at the
+head of a famous company of a famous regiment. Now here again he
+appeared, in the garb of the regular army.
+
+"Mr. Winthrop--Captain Winthrop! Don't you know me? Regy Prime!"
+
+And another of Pop's old boys, another Columbiad, another of New York's
+National Guardsmen, turned regular soldier,--the new captain threw aside
+his book and grabbed the youngster's hands.
+
+"In the name of all that's preposterous, Regy, what are you doing here?"
+
+And then, unnerved and overcome at last, fearful of breaking down, the
+lad looked imploringly at the big sergeant, and in twenty words the
+story was told.
+
+"Who ordered him confined? Who took his despatches away?" demanded the
+older captain, the old officer of the day, with threatening eyes.
+
+Not for the wealth of India would Sergeant Brennan sully the
+unimpeachable record of thirty years by a word of even inferential
+disapproval of the deed of a superior officer.
+
+"Call Sergeant Hanley," said he, and Hanley came. The question was
+repeated.
+
+"The officer of the guard, Lieutenant Hoover," said he, in answer.
+
+"My compliments to the lieutenant, and say I wish to speak with him,"
+said the veteran captain; and there was painful silence as, a moment
+later, the junior officer came clinking in, his black eyes flitting
+nervously about, his blue lips twitching. "This way, if you please, Mr.
+Hoover," said the senior captain. "Captain Winthrop, will you favor me?"
+And ushering them both into the little guard-room, the captain closed
+the door.
+
+Less than four minutes lasted that interview. Meanwhile there was
+silence in the sunny court-yard. Brennan paced majestically up and down.
+Hanley stood uncomfortably a moment or two, then tiptoed back to the
+guard still standing in ranks in front of the building, and Shorty was
+left practically alone. There was a delighted whisper behind. "Sa-ay,
+Shorty, just wouldn't I rather be here than in that feller's shoes! Get
+us out of this now, and you'll see."
+
+Presently the glass door opened and Hoover came forth, slinking,
+crestfallen, twitching, but if he had been a conquering hero Brennan
+could no more magnificently have saluted. Halting, facing him, his
+white-gloved hand snapped up to the polished visor of his cap, and there
+it stayed unnoticed, until the dismayed officer was swallowed up within
+the hall.
+
+Two minutes more and two soldiers were sent on the run to clean the
+orderly's horse and equipments. A little darky was set to work on his
+besplashed leggings. "I'll see you in a few minutes again," said Captain
+Winthrop, as he and his predecessor hastened away to report to their
+commanding officer. The guards changed on the pavement outside. A new
+lieutenant came in and looked curiously at Shorty, now being regaled
+with soldier coffee and a huge crust of "Capitol Bakery" bread. Fifes
+squeaked and drums banged on the avenue as the old guard turned off, but
+Hoover came no more.
+
+When Winthrop reappeared in course of half an hour, "Badger" was ready
+in front and Shorty was once more in trim for a ride. A receipt for his
+despatches was stowed in his belt, and then as the captain would have
+led him forth, the lad thought of Desmond, and briefly he told the
+story. Winthrop nodded, went back, spoke a few words to the Zouave, and
+rejoined the lad. Desmond waved his hand. Winthrop grasped Shorty's and
+shook it warmly.
+
+"Now don't let this mishap trouble you, Regy. No harm has been done.
+Good will come of it. Now, good luck to you."
+
+How much good was to be the result of that mishap Winthrop could never
+have guessed at the time. How much poor Shorty had lost through that
+storm, that morning mud ride, that arrest and incarceration and the
+consequent fatigue, he was to learn within another day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+The general was an indignant man when, late that afternoon, he heard the
+details of Shorty's misadventures, but the general was just. He knew
+that battles had been lost and kingdoms ruined because of orders hastily
+or carelessly worded. He might have known, as he said to the staff when
+discussing the incident, that if he "told that little bunch of springs
+and impetuosity to stop for nothing and put him on a hard-mouthed horse
+of similar temperament, the provost guard wouldn't have a picnic." The
+general knew he could not ignore the authority of the provost-marshal,
+but he might have known that Shorty would be little apt to stop for
+sergeants, corporals, or privates when told to stop for nothing.
+
+Only a day or two before several generals and their staffs had an
+amusing illustration of Shorty's immense conception of his official
+position. A big working party from _the_ brigade was chopping trees in
+the woods a mile up the Potomac, and a big pleasure party from
+Washington was visiting General "Baldy" Smith on the opposite bank. For
+the entertainment and instruction of his guests this accomplished
+officer had ordered out a light battery, and with much precision that
+battery was driving shells into that very wood--and the axemen out.
+Bearing fragments of iron in his hands, the indignant officer in charge
+of the work galloped in to his general to say that his party had had to
+run for their lives, and the work was at a stand. Shorty's horse stood
+ready saddled, so the general bade the boy orderly carry the fragments,
+with his compliments, to General Smith, and tell him the battery was
+shelling his men, and Shorty and "Badger" went off like a shot. Over the
+Chain Bridge they tore, to the amaze and disgust of certain sentries
+long accustomed to halting everybody that didn't wear a star, and
+straight up to the brilliant group at head-quarters they galloped, and
+with scant apology and only hurried salute, the youngster panted his
+message and exhibited his collaterals. The general listened with
+unruffled calm, inspected a fragment or two with professional gravity
+and interest, noted the fresh powder black on the fracture and concave
+surface, passed them on to his visitors with some placid remark about
+the force of the bursting charge, and, to Shorty's unspeakable wrath,
+appeared to be in no wise impressed with the peril to which he had
+subjected the men of a comrade brigade, and even less with the presence
+of the bearer of the message. Shorty had counted on creating a
+sensation, and he and "Badger" were the only ones to show the least
+agitation. Bethinking himself of a supplementary remark of the officer
+who brought in the news--and the fragments, the lad returned to the
+attack. "One shell burst so close to Captain Wood's head it almost
+stunned him, sir."
+
+"Ah, did it?" queried the general, with provoking calm. "And was nobody
+hurt?"
+
+"Nobody was _hit_, sir," answered Shorty, with temper rising still
+higher. "But a dozen might have been."
+
+"Ah, well, ride back and tell the general I'm glad nobody was hurt," was
+Baldy's imperturbable ultimatum, and the lad spurred back in a fury. Of
+course the firing was stopped, and later the generals grinned affably
+over the incident, but Shorty's self-esteem was ruffled, and he told the
+senior aide, to that officer's infinite delight, that further messages
+to General Smith would "better be carried by some other man on the
+staff," and of course that story went the rounds of both brigades, much
+to the merriment of many a camp-fire, but not altogether to Shorty's
+detriment.
+
+Now, if such was Shorty's conception of the gravity and importance of
+his duties when bearing a verbal message from one brigadier to a junior,
+what was not his immensity when a hastily written despatch, conveying
+tidings of flood and disaster, was intrusted to him by the commander at
+the front to be delivered to the general-in-chief in town. Shorty rode
+like a demon that day, and even "Badger" was amazed, and that he, bearer
+of despatches to head-quarters of the army and ordered to stop for
+nothing, should have had to stop for bayonets and be lifted by the
+collar into the presence of the officer of the guard,--that he should
+find in the person of that officer the butt of the whole First
+Latin,--that he should be ordered by that--thing--to the common cells
+wherein were penned the drunkards and deserters, and led thither by the
+ear, and an impudently grinning Paddy if he _was_ a sergeant, all this
+was, in truth, too much for Shorty. No comfort Winthrop could offer
+would soothe his wounded soul. He went back ablaze to brigade
+head-quarters. The general was away up the Potomac, and didn't return
+till late. Even then when Shorty tried to tell his tale his excitement
+and wrath made him incoherent. The general was amazed to think that an
+officer of regulars would hold his messenger after discovering that he
+was actually the bearer of despatches. But Shorty's animated description
+of that callow soldier, and by no means guarded references to his school
+history, gave the general a clue. He fully intended, of course, to
+follow the matter up, but other and more important issues came to claim
+his time and attention.
+
+That night at nine o'clock the general decided to make a personal
+inspection along his front. Horses for himself and two aides were
+ordered, and Marmion, the colored hostler, presently came round to the
+big tent.
+
+"Marse Prime's horse done gone stiff, sir," he said to the
+adjutant-general, "and I reckon Marse Reggy don't feel much like night
+ridin'. He's sleepin' da' on de hay."
+
+The officer went and took a peep. Wrapped in his blanket, his head on
+his arms, the youngster had curled up for a nap, worn out by the
+excitement and emotions of the day. "Don't wake him," was the order, and
+the three horsemen rode away.
+
+It was a still, starlit night. The roads were yet heavy with mud. The
+horses sank to their fetlocks and squashed noisily through the mire
+until the little party were able to turn into the cart-tracks through
+the thick woods, and, joined now by the field officer of the day, they
+pushed on to the outposts. It was the dark of the moon. The blackness of
+the groves and copses was intense. Objects, except on the open field or
+against the sky, could hardly be distinguished five feet away. But every
+now and then there would come the muffled challenge of sentries at inner
+posts of the guard, and it was over half an hour before they reached the
+outermost groups, with the line of night sentinels some distance ahead.
+To every inquiry at every station of officer or sergeant, the answer was
+the same, all quiet, all alert. There had been much shooting at patrols
+and pickets for over a month, a practice both sides soon abandoned, but
+at the time there was hazardous, nerve-trying duty at the front, and few
+men welcomed it except for the excitement. Somewhere in the neighborhood
+of ten o'clock, following in single file a winding wood track, a
+sergeant leading afoot, the party approached the southern edge of a
+strip of woods and halted while the corporal stepped ahead to assure the
+sentinel. Then the general rode quietly up to question the man, the
+sergeant assuming his watch the while, for even in presence of the
+commander-in-chief there must be no cessation of vigilance.
+
+To the queries as to where the nearest sentries were posted? what were
+his own instructions? what he would do in certain emergencies? the
+soldier answered promptly, perhaps a bit impatiently, even as though he
+might have enjoyed the catechism at another time, but had some weightier
+matter in hand at the moment. He kept turning and glancing out across
+the open field to the south, stooping once or twice as though to peer at
+something against the sky, and the general saw and questioned.
+
+"Anything unusual about?"
+
+"Why, yes, sir; at least I think so. The patrol that came by ten minutes
+ago said that they had heard horses galloping out across the fields, and
+I could have sworn I heard hoofs on this here bridle-path where it dips
+into yon woods. By day nobody can come across here without our seeing
+them. By night we can't see unless we lie flat and look up, and then
+they could get within a rod or two."
+
+The general bent over his horse's neck and listened. There was not wind
+enough to rustle a leaf. The sky was almost cloudless; the fields in
+front were open and silent; the dark, shadowy woods, beyond, merged in
+the general gloom. Far off to the right front, over a mile away, a faint
+light gleamed in some farm-house window. Far off to the left front, the
+south, there was a dim, lurid tint upon the night that might have come
+from dozens of watch-fires. Straight away in front the cart-track dove
+into the darkness on its way across the field, and, over against them,
+there was a dent or depression in the outlines of the fringe of timber,
+as it stood against the southern stars, that told where the road entered
+the opposite grove. It was there, right there, said the sentinel, he was
+almost sure he had heard horses' feet, but nothing else, not another
+sound.
+
+"Did the patrol stop at your outpost?" the general asked the sergeant.
+
+"No, sir. It went right along the line of sentries. I crawled out during
+the afternoon and climbed a tree in the field to our right. You can see
+it standing there, sir" (and, indeed, its outline was faintly visible
+against the stars). "I could see some distance off to the south and
+southwest. Lewinsville and the barns are in plain view, and some
+scattered farm-houses."
+
+"Did you see any troops?"
+
+"No, sir, but some saw me, and the bullets came a-singing, and I had to
+quit and crawfish back. But this path leads into a road half a mile or
+so out there."
+
+And while the sergeant spoke the soldier had resumed his watch, and
+suddenly they heard him whisper, "Hist!"
+
+"What do you see or hear?" murmured the sergeant, springing to his side.
+
+"There is something out there, by thunder! coming this way. These
+gentlemen had better get back a bit. I can't tell how many there may
+be."
+
+Somebody,--some party, possibly, stealing up to feel the pickets again,
+and here were the general and staff-officers unescorted! What a plum for
+Southern cavalry to pluck, did they but know! In breathless silence the
+watchers waited. The general refused to retire. Not a sound could the
+horsemen hear, but that sentry sprawled on the ground could not be
+mistaken. Not an object moving was visible. Suddenly, though low and
+cautious, they heard the click of a gun-lock. The sentry had brought his
+rifle to the ready. Then, indeed, must there be something in the wind.
+Ten seconds later, and low, firm, so as to be heard only a few paces
+away, there came the order, "Halt!" A brief pause, then, with menace in
+the tone, the challenge, "Who goes there?" For an instant no reply. Then
+in tremulous voice came an answer in the field to the right of the road.
+
+"It's only me, suh; Marse Finlay's Brennus, suh," and there can be no
+doubting the Ethiopian accent.
+
+"Who's with you, nigger? Who's back of you there?"
+
+"Nobody, suh. I'se all alone, suh, but they's some gen'lemen way back,
+suh. They done give me a letter."
+
+"Come in here, Brennus. Let's see your letter," called the sergeant,
+stepping warily forward, his gun, too, at the charge. And presently out
+from under the stars steps a tall negro boy, lithe, active, and alert.
+He is trembling a bit and uncertain of his whereabouts. He needs to know
+something before he can impart anything, and presently it comes.
+
+"Is you gen'lemen--Yankees?"
+
+"Yankees from the general down," answers the sergeant. "Half a dozen
+right here ready to hear your story." And the negro seems to recognize
+alien accent in the Western twang of the speaker, and to take heart at
+once.
+
+"Dey done gimme a paper," he whispers, and the general interrupts.
+
+"Bring him back to the reserve, where there's a fire. We'll examine him
+there, sergeant." And, turning his horse, the general leads the way.
+
+It is nearly eleven o'clock when, a little later, half a dozen officers
+are grouped about the slender, tattered, weary negro, a lad barely
+twenty years of age, if that. To the general he has handed a roll of
+tin-foil, on which, as it is unfolded by the gleam of the camp-lanterns,
+the word "Solace" is stamped, and the thin tissue-paper it encloses
+bears some writing, over which the general strains his eyes and studies
+eagerly; bends closer to the light and studies again. Then,
+straightening up suddenly, he turns upon the young negro.
+
+"Where'd you leave them? How far out?"
+
+"'Bout two miles, suh; p'r'aps not dat much."
+
+"Are you sure about the troops,--about the number? There are none
+others?"
+
+"Ye-as, suh. Dey ain't any udder companies near."
+
+"And you can guide us right to the spot?"
+
+"Ye-as, suh. Certain, suh."
+
+The general turns sharply on his senior aide. "There's not a moment to
+be lost. What a pity we have no cavalry! Ride straight to Colonel
+Connor. Tell him to rouse his regiment instantly and without a sound.
+Leave knapsacks and blankets in camp. Guide them here as quick as you
+can. Now, captain, this boy must have a rousing supper. He deserves it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+And now if there is a boy reader of this story who doesn't say it is
+high time he is told what had become of Snipe Lawton, then the narrator
+never knew a thing about boys. Leaving Shorty to sleep over his injured
+dignity and lose another of the opportunities of his life, we will turn
+back the page and look again over the stirring fields thirty miles to
+the south. As neither Snipe nor his major nor his friend Keating, of the
+Zouaves, had been recognized among the dead, as they were not apparently
+among the prisoners, and as they certainly had not reappeared among
+their comrades along the Potomac, they must be looked for where last
+seen, close to that old brick and stone Virginia homestead, bowered in
+the midst of vines and fruit-trees, known as the Henry house.
+
+Not until weeks after--long, weary, perilous weeks--was the story told,
+and then Snipe was not the narrator. The grave, taciturn major waxed
+eloquent and even diffuse for once in his life, and the burden of his
+song was Snipe and Sergeant Keating.
+
+After their second brave advance along the plateau the New-Englanders
+found themselves unsupported on both flanks, and their men falling from
+the hot fire that poured in from almost every direction. The old colonel
+hung on to the last, but saw that to save his regiment he must withdraw,
+and so gave the order. They fell back fighting, closing to the centre,
+and only once was there anything like confusion, and that occurred close
+to the Henry house, when some other regiment that had suddenly marched
+up the slope to the west almost as suddenly broke and came surging over
+the right companies, carrying two of them in the rush. It was while
+staying this disorder that Major Stark was suddenly dashed to earth. His
+horse, disembowelled by a whirring fragment of shell, reared and plunged
+violently, falling on his rider and crushing him in his frantic agony.
+Almost wild with grief and excitement, Snipe sprang from his saddle and
+ran to the major's aid, even though a dozen gray-clad fellows came
+bounding at them through the smoke. "I declare," he said, afterwards, "I
+thought they were coming to help me. They _did_ help,--three or four of
+them. They pulled that poor horse off just as we've seen a crowd pull a
+fallen horse out of a tangle on Broadway, and they lifted the major up
+and stood him on one leg, and one of 'em gave him a drink from his
+canteen, and another, a boy like myself, actually began brushing him
+off. Everybody was so crazy with yelling and shouting that for a minute
+they didn't seem to realize the situation."
+
+But realization came quickly enough. The major's right leg was broken
+below the knee. He had received severe internal hurts and was dazed and
+sick, and Snipe and a "reb" between them were supporting him, when some
+officer shouted, "Get those prisoners to the rear! Here comes another
+charge." Two or three men strove to carry the crippled officer, who was
+in great pain, and Snipe was bidden to bear a hand, which of course he
+did; but their progress was slow, and in the midst of it somebody
+yelled, "Look out! Lie flat!" And down went everybody as a red volley
+flashed through the smoke veil from the west, and then, loudly cheering,
+another Union regiment, a big one, came charging across the plateau, and
+the "Johnnies" had to scramble to their feet and scurry out of the way.
+The regiment bounded right over them, it seemed to Snipe, and went on at
+the guns the rebs were dragging away, and presently it, too, was
+swallowed up in smoke and fire on every side, and wounded officers and
+men came drifting back. One of the former recognized Major Stark at
+once, and made some soldiers lift and carry him, and in this way they
+got back down behind the Henry house, where there were hundreds of
+stragglers,--hundreds,--and among them were a number of the Fire
+Zouaves, and Snipe caught sight of Keating, and the little sergeant
+joined them at once. "It's all up," said he. "We hain't got no
+dis_cipp_line, or we'd a cleaned them fellers out quick as Forty could
+snuff out a fire." All the same he stood by Snipe and the party carrying
+Major Stark, and so made a way through groups of scattered soldiery
+until, somewhere ahead toward the Warrenton pike, they could see blue
+regiments still in solid line, and ambulances and wagons, and thither
+they bore their officer until at last they laid him behind the shelter
+of a stone wall; and there they found one of Burnside's regiments
+waiting orders, and its surgeon hurried to their aid, and slit up the
+major's trousers and knocked the lid of a cracker-box into splints, and
+deftly set and bandaged the fractured leg while the battle raged at the
+front. Sherman and Wilcox and Burnside still had unbroken and reliable
+regiments. The little detachment of regular cavalry was drawn up out
+there to the south on the heights near the Chinn house. The captured
+batteries might still be retaken if only some practised hand could put
+in a brigade or two together. But just as they were getting the major
+into an ambulance there came fierce, crashing volleys through the woods
+in the direction of the Junction, and a grand chorus of exultant cheers
+and yells. A fresh line of troops burst from the fringe of woods
+directly at the south and from the west of the Sudley Springs road. The
+regiments then advancing up the slope were struck in flank and rear. The
+cavalry came whirling down off the height with many a saddle empty, and
+everybody seemed to realize at once that more of Johnston's troops had
+arrived and turned the right of the line, and then everything seemed to
+melt away in earnest.
+
+"Still," said the major, in telling of it later, "we could not realize
+we were badly whipped. We knew we must have punished them as hard as we
+were punished, all but the mishandling, perhaps, of those batteries, and
+all that seemed necessary was to fall back on the heights of Centreville
+and there stand our ground." But instead of going thither by the direct
+route along the pike, which would have held the commands together,
+through some further mischance the brigades, left finally to shift for
+themselves, drifted back the way they came, and this led to the further
+disaster to the north of Bull Run. No sooner had the retiring troops
+"uncovered" the stone bridge than Confederate guns and cavalry pushed
+forward, and one well-handled battery found a position from which it
+could easily command that suspension bridge over Cub Run, some two miles
+farther east. And then the fun began in earnest--for the rebs. That
+bridge was the sole means of escape of all Union batteries and a whole
+menagerie of draught animals, wagons, ambulances, and even buggies and
+carriages of sightseers from Washington, all surging back that way. A
+shell exploding on the bridge killed and wounded the mules of a heavy
+wagon, which was instantly overturned, completely blocking the passage
+for other wheels. More shells burst about the ears of the now
+demoralized drivers and teamsters, who cut their traces, mounted their
+animals, and rode madly away. As darkness fell gradually upon the scene,
+a dozen more splendid guns and several dozen wagon-loads of stores and
+supplies were left, and among the abandoned vehicles was the ambulance
+conveying the wounded major, watched over by faithful Snipe and Sergeant
+Keating.
+
+But even now the lad did not despair. At the steep bank of Cub Run, half
+a mile north of the fatal bridge, a two-horse, two-seated open farm
+wagon had been left by its terror-stricken owners, who half waded, half
+swam, across and scurried up the opposite slope. A bright idea struck
+the boy. It was impossible to get across Cub Run with a wagon. But there
+were the open fields to the west of it. There were those wood roads that
+he had traversed the night before. Why not try that way? Somehow,
+between them, he and Keating got that team and wagon turned about. Then
+they "boosted" the major to the rear seat, where Keating supported him,
+while Snipe took the reins and, turning sharp to the north, with dozens
+of fugitives yelling caution, comment, or suggestion, he drove away from
+them all into the cool, dark woodland lanes that wound along east of the
+route the disordered column was following, and just about dusk, emerging
+on the other side, Snipe caught sight of the ridge and the farm-house,
+the scene of his exploit the night before. How changed were all
+conditions now! Away down on the lowlands near Bull Run, in long column
+of twos or fours, some regimental fragments were still strung out,
+trailing wearily from Sudley Ford. They still interposed, therefore,
+between the fugitives and the enemy. The major, though making no moan,
+was ashen with the agony caused by the jolting of the wagon. The sweat
+was starting in beads from his forehead, and Keating said they must give
+him rest. Huddled behind the farm-house they found the two trembling old
+negroes left there as caretakers. Though unnerved by the sound of
+battle, they had not dared desert their post. Snipe bade them bring out
+instantly a mattress and blankets. The seats were taken from the wagon.
+The mattress and blankets were spread upon the bottom. One of the old
+darkies cooked a substantial supper. The horses were watered and fed.
+Provisions, wine, and apple-jack were stowed in the wagon. The major,
+rested and partially revived, was lifted in. Then with Snipe and Keating
+trudging alongside, once more under the starlight they drove eastward on
+the road leading, as the old darkies said, right over to the turnpike.
+
+But a sore trial awaited them. A mile or more they moved cautiously
+along, and then began the descent of a slope, at the bottom of which
+Snipe felt sure they would find Cub Run. There was the Run, placid,
+deep, steep-banked as ever, but the vitally important bridge was cut
+away. Grayson's troopers, to secure themselves against surprise, had
+destroyed it two days before. Farther in that direction they could not
+go. Here they could not stay. Any moment might bring the Black Horse
+Cavalry, of which so much had been said and so little seen, scouting
+around that flank of the retreating army. Away off to the southeast,
+about Centreville, they could hear the confused sounds of bugle calls.
+Away off to the south Blenker's reserve brigade was still in line of
+battle, covering the Union retreat. Every now and then the rising night
+wind would bear the distant crackle and crash of file firing, but the
+bigger guns were still, and here in the pitchy darkness, with a strange
+team, in a strange land, were Snipe and Keating, sole guardians of a
+precious life,--that of the wounded and suffering major. "It's of no
+use, boys," said Stark, faintly. "Drive slowly back to the house and
+leave me with the old darkies. Then you go and make the best of your way
+to Fairfax. You'll be safe there."
+
+They did turn about and drive to the farm-house and "rout out" the
+darkies again, but only to make one of the old servitors come as a
+guide, for Snipe and the sergeant both declared no rebel should lug that
+Yankee major off to prison so long as wit or work could save him.
+
+All night they plodded slowly on, twisting and turning through country
+lanes or bridle-tracks. Time and again they had to halt and scout, for
+the poor bewildered negro lost the way again and again, and when at
+last morning dawned, they were not nine miles on a bee-line north of
+Sudley church, but were hopelessly far from Fairfax. And now the rain
+that always follows a heavy battle began to fall. They hid in the
+thicket all the hours till darkness came again, drowsing by turns. They
+hitched in and again pushed northward at nightfall, but the stars were
+hidden. There was nothing to guide them. They groped into another
+thicket and hid another day, the rain still pouring steadily. Snipe
+"shinned" up a tree and took the bearings of the farm-houses within
+sight; took heart because he saw no signs of scouting cavalry,
+everything being now afar off to the eastward along the main roads to
+Washington, and, turning his jacket inside out, after brief conference
+with Keating he stole away through the dripping thickets, and lurked
+about the nearest farm until he succeeded in making a negro hear his
+cautious signals. Money was potent and the major had plenty. The darky
+brought grain for the horses, and chickens, eggs, and milk, and that
+night guided them through many a devious way until within an hour of
+dawn they were again hidden in the thick woods, still farther to the
+northwest and away from the travelled roads. The nearest village now
+seemed eight or ten miles away. Before the negro left them he hunted up
+a friend to take his place. Ten dollars for his night's work! It was a
+fortune, and eagerly his successor sought to earn as much.
+
+And so, guided and fed by darkies, hiding by day and journeying
+occasionally by night, they kept on for nearly a week, heading for the
+Potomac about Edwards' Ferry, hoping to dodge all patrols meantime and
+to discover some way of slipping past the pickets as they neared the
+river. Nearer Washington every bridle-path they knew would be guarded.
+Through the relays of darkies they learned that General Beauregard's
+army had enveloped the defences of the capital on the south side of the
+Potomac, and that troops were passing to and fro all over the country
+between Leesburg and Alexandria. Major Stark said, therefore, their only
+chance was to lie in hiding somewhere until his leg had knit. Money he
+still fortunately had in sufficient quantity. Keating still had his
+rifle and revolver, though the major and Snipe had been bereft of their
+pistols. Their negro friend led them to a dense thicket in a deep
+ravine, far from the highways and byways. Wood and water were abundant.
+Shelter they made of boughs. Food and news the darkies brought them in
+quantities, and here they nursed their plucky major and studied the
+country toward the Potomac until at last the bone seemed knitting, and
+then, one starlit night, late in August, pushed cautiously on again,
+still taking their wagon, and with the dawn of the next day they were
+across the Leesburg road and deep in the woods toward the ferry. Here
+another stay became necessary. Southern pickets and patrols lined the
+banks of the stream, and a day or two later their new guide, a negro
+boy of eighteen, crept to them in terror to say he felt sure somebody
+must have "peached," for "cavalry gemmen" were inquiring at every house
+and hamlet. A whole company had ridden out from Vienna that very day,
+and they were asking if any one had seen a two-horse farm wagon, with a
+sick man in it, and two other men driving. Troopers were beating up the
+wood roads then. In half an hour the wagon was in ashes, the tires and
+iron work hidden in the brush, and with Stark astride one horse, Snipe
+and Keating alternating on the other, they pushed through the forest to
+another hiding-place, hearing the whoops and yells and signal shots of
+the cavalry every hour until dusk. Then, with their negro guide, they
+kept on all night long, halting and dodging every little while; hid in
+the woods within sound of the Southern bugles all another day; stole on
+southeastward all another night, until their guide said Lewinsville was
+not a mile away to the south, and the Yankee pickets in front of Chain
+Bridge only a mile or so to the northeast. That day proved most eventful
+of all. Hungry, thirsty, and weary, they were waiting the return of
+Brennus, as was the classic name of their guide, when about dark he
+reached them empty-handed. Not a moment was to be lost, said he. The
+cavalry had struck their trail and were following the horse-tracks
+through the woods. There was an abandoned hut, a woodman's, half a mile
+away, and thither Stark limped painfully, leaning hard upon his
+friends. They managed to reach it just in time, their horses being left
+to shift for themselves. They were now close to the Union lines, yet the
+gray pickets and patrols guarded every path. They could not hope to
+carry Stark through such a net-work, and he could only painfully limp
+and only occasionally bear a portion of his weight upon that leg. Nor
+could they hope to remain undiscovered another day. There was only one
+thing to be done. Get word through the lines to the Yankees, and beg for
+rescue.
+
+Stark quickly pencilled the message on tissue-paper, torn from before a
+picture page in the little testament he always carried. "Major Stark,
+crippled, Sergeant Keating, and Corporal Lawton are hiding just south of
+the rebel outposts. One troop of cavalry the only force nearer than
+Lewinsville except usual reserves. Unless rescued to-night will surely
+be recaptured in the morning. The bearer can guide. If possible help."
+This he signed officially and rolled in "Solace" tin-foil. "Now,
+Brennus," said he, "crawl past the rebs; get that to the Lincoln
+soldiers, and it's your freedom and fifty dollars to boot."
+
+We know the rest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+Far back along the wooded shores of the Potomac, where the mist is
+slowly creeping from the silent stream, the sentries are pacing the
+beaten path bounding each regimental camp. An odd custom, originating
+among the volunteers, has been the rule in several commands. Each sentry
+marched just fifty paces along his post in common time, then the cry
+"About!" would go ringing from post to post in every conceivable key and
+pitch, girdling one battalion with a chain of petulant yelps, another
+with a series of mournful groans. Fun for the sentries, and, for a time,
+for the camps, but a foe to soldier repose. The object was to cause the
+sentries to march in the same direction, and thereby prevent their
+turning their backs to each other, in which event there would be left
+unwatched a long stretch of sentry-post through which marauder might
+creep or roisterer escape. The custom lasted but a little while, proving
+more of a nuisance than a benefit. But there were three new regiments
+in which it obtained this lovely night, and they are brigaded with a
+veteran command that lords it over them because it has smelled powder
+and shed blood, which they have not. It is a ragged regiment, a rusty
+regiment, for it is still clad in the relics of the gray uniform in
+which its proud State sent it to the field three months before. It is
+saucy, and slouchy and independent, individually, as rag wearers are apt
+to be the world over. But it is wonderful to see that regiment brace up
+when it gets in line, and that is what it has done this night, without a
+sound beyond the low-voiced "Turn out here" of the sergeants, as they
+sped from tent to tent,--without confusion or even question. Ten minutes
+from the time the general's aide has "routed out" the colonel, he has
+routed out his captains and the sergeants are routing out the men.
+Twenty minutes, and these silent companies are elbow to elbow on the
+color line in front of camp. The colonel rides out on his sure-footed
+old charger. His field-officers join their wings. Such commands as are
+given are in low voice and passed down the line. "Right face! Right
+shoulder shift arms! Forward, march! Route step and keep your mouths
+shut!" Out along the winding road they go, aide and colonel riding in
+front, over six hundred stalwart ragamuffins swinging behind. Men murmur
+or whisper to each other "What's up?" Here and there a canteen clinks,
+and there is a dull sound of swift-moving feet. Out they go past the
+lines of their own sentries, some of whom shout for the corporal and
+want to be "relieved off post" and allowed to go with their companies.
+All around the wooded heights south of Chain Bridge a dozen other
+regiments are placidly sleeping. Maine, Vermont, New York, Indiana, and
+Wisconsin there are represented, but only one State or regiment appears
+in the stealthily marching column. On it goes down a winding slope,
+file-closers edging in between the sets of fours as the roadway narrows.
+Up the rise beyond where stand or squat wondering groups of the picket
+reserves. On--another quarter of a mile where they find the supports. On
+past outposts and pickets, and at last, after a sharp sprint of a mile,
+the word "Halt!" is muttered, and the rifle-butts are lowered to the
+foot, and the regiment stands among the whispering trees and waits. The
+leading company has not long to wonder. They hear and know the low voice
+of their general, giving brief directions to the little colonel. They
+hear the words "Open field--thin woods beyond.--Rebel pickets lining
+opposite skirt.--Supports, etc., along the road. Deploy your skirmish
+line. Drive in pickets. Capture all you can, but utter not a sound. Do
+not fire unless you have to. Push straight ahead along this wood road,
+swift as you can. We go with you."
+
+A trembling negro boy crouches by the general's stirrup. Colonel
+Connor's horse almost treads on him in the dark. The colonel speaks a
+quiet word to the captain of the foremost company, and in low tone that
+officer orders, "'Tention, Company 'A!' Load at will! Load!" There is a
+sound of fumbling at heavy cartridge-boxes, of tearing paper, the
+whee-ep of the rammers springing from the pipes, a phosphorescent gleam
+of steel as they whirl in air, a muttered malediction as some fellow's
+cap is knocked off by an awkward neighbor. There is a dull pounding, as
+the heavy bullets are driven home, a clicking of gun-locks, as the
+little copper caps are thrust upon the cones; then the low thud of the
+iron-shod butts upon the ground and all is still. The lieutenant-colonel
+rides back along the column until he reaches the colors, each company in
+succession loading as silently. The left wing is bidden to remain where
+it is as a reserve, and to await orders. The leading company, with arms
+trailed, forms line at the edge of the wood. The second platoon steps
+back three paces as reserve. The first receives the low-toned command,
+"As skirmishers, by the right and left flanks take intervals," a thing
+at which these Bull Run veterans have been drilling since early in May,
+and can do in even thicker darkness. In a minute the long line of
+dispersed shadows is formed, facing southwest, and in two minutes, with
+officers close up to the line, the general and his aides only a few
+yards behind, and five companies following noiselessly along the
+roadway, out they go across the starlight open. Everybody seems to know
+the enemy's sentinels will be found along that opposite skirt of woods.
+Everybody listens with straining ears and thumping heart for the first
+challenge. Those young Southrons are no fools on picket, and even in the
+dark a cat-footed skirmish line cannot hope to crawl upon them
+unobserved. Half-way across goes the long jagged line,--two-thirds of
+the two hundred yards that interpose between the groves,--and now the
+centremost, those along the pathway, backed by half a dozen fellows from
+the reserve, make ready for a rush. Ten yards more, then some luckless
+skirmisher trips on some unseen root, stumbles forward, and swears under
+his breath. Instantly from the clump of trees nearest the road there
+comes the sharp order "Halt!" and the click of a lock, but before the
+challenge can follow, there is a swift rush of stooping foes along the
+roadway, a heavy blow, a struggle, a sharp report, a stifled cry, then
+"Forward! Forward! double quick!" everywhere along the column, and with
+the skirmishers leaping and crashing ahead through the timber, tumbling
+over the startled sentinels and pickets, with occasional crackling of
+rifle and shouting of warning and command, with officers darting along
+among the men, with the general and his aides and Colonel Connor
+spurring close after, with a dozen men swarming ahead along the dim
+pathway, and with the sturdy column still swiftly following at the
+double, the little command sweeps over the scattered outposts and
+reserves in front of it, the Southerners standing their ground like men,
+but being utterly overmatched, and finally, as the aroused and startled
+reserves, farther to the rear, fall slowly back toward their main body
+in the direction of Falls Church, the negro guide, bounding along with
+the foremost officers, leads the column farther to the southwest, past
+all infantry outposts and reserves until finally they go scrambling over
+a snake-fence on the edge of an open field, while away to the southeast
+guns are firing, bugles sounding the alarm, drums hoarsely rattling, and
+here as they stop to breathe and close up on the head of column, they
+are greeted by the stirring peal of a cavalry trumpet certainly not a
+half a mile away. It is the signal "To horse!" "Look out for those
+fellows, and give 'em a volley if they approach!" orders the colonel to
+his panting men. "Form a skirmish line fronting south, captain." And
+then, behind that living curtain, the rearmost companies come running up
+and forming battle line, while the general, with a dozen followers,
+rides into a little grove at the heels of their darky guide. There is a
+moment of gleeful shouting and out they come again, slowly, a dark
+cluster of forms, some apparently supporting an enfeebled man, others
+grouping about some shadowy companions. Around these a whole company is
+rallied as escort and bidden to retrace its steps, and then the general
+rides back, beaming, under cover of the little battle line, and he and
+Connor shake hands and listen for a moment to the distant uproar of the
+alarm. And now the Union lines have taken it up, and far back toward
+the Potomac some new arrivals, as yet untried, have turned loose their
+bugles and drums, and the general says, quietly, "Let the command fall
+back slowly, but keep an eye open for the cavalry." Three minutes more
+and Connor has four companies back on the narrow road, with the
+skirmishers still out toward the south, and then, with sudden storm and
+thunder of hoofs, with trumpets sounding a spirited charge, without so
+much as deigning to see what force might be in front of them, there
+comes dashing up the turfy woodroad, in slender column, following,
+fearless, the lead of a daring young Virginian captain, a troop of
+yelling horsemen, the very fellows, doubtless, who for two days past
+have been scouring the woods for our fugitives. "It is a mad-brained
+trick." What possible object is to be gained? All they know is that
+somewhere along that road is a body of Yankee troops, and they have been
+burning for a chance to get at them ever since Bull Run. They do not
+even seem to see--they do not heed--the thin skirmish line through which
+they bear resistless. The few scattering shots fired are answered by the
+wild crackle of revolvers. On they come, straight down the road,
+invisible as yet, but unmistakable. "Halt! Spread out there, men!" are
+Connor's orders. At least forty or fifty blue-coats line up quickly and
+solidly from fence to fence, every rifle at ready or aim, and none too
+soon. Five seconds more and out from the fire-spitting blackness at the
+south looms the charging column, and a blinding glare lights up the
+wood, a crashing volley wakes the echoes. Half a dozen horses come
+plunging, kicking and struggling, to the very feet of the stern array.
+Half a dozen gallant fellows are hurled to earth. The whole column is
+brought up standing, and then, realizing the peril of its position,
+breaks and turns and tears away, leaving two dead at the front and two
+or three more wounded, tumbling out of saddle as they rush back for the
+rear.
+
+Foremost, half stunned and sorely wounded, but a fighter to the last,
+the Virginia captain struggles to his feet. Bayonets are levelled at his
+dauntless heart, but a sharp order restrains them. Strong hands seize
+and disarm him. Strong arms bear him, struggling faintly, within the
+ranks of his captors. The dead are left to their friends, the wounded
+tenderly raised and borne as gently as possible to the rear. Then once
+again the column resumes its homeward march, and in half an hour is safe
+within the Union lines.
+
+Meantime where is Shorty, whose craze it was to see what might be going
+on about that hamlet of Lewinsville, whose longing it was to "do
+something" like Snipe, and who was sleeping the sleep of healthful,
+hearty boyhood, when he would have given his ears to be with that
+raiding column? Somewhere about midnight he became conscious of excited
+whisperings about him. Marmion was bustling around. Horses were being
+saddled, and, sitting bolt upright, he heard the clamor of bugles and
+drums, and, rushing out in front of head-quarters, could distinguish the
+distant crash of musketry. Then out came two officers, buckling on
+revolvers and swords. Marmion came running with their horses, and to
+Shorty's excited question, "Where's the general?" he got the heartless
+answer, "Gone hours ago, youngster, while you were asleep." Never
+stopping to saddle, only whipping through "Badger's" rattling teeth the
+bit of his bridle and throwing the reins over his head, Shorty is
+astride in a second, and, hardly yet wide awake, is away at a sputtering
+gallop after the departing officers. Before they have reached the little
+run half a mile out he has overtaken them. The sound of skirmish firing
+is still lively at the distant southwest front. He knows every inch of
+the road, and is mad to get ahead, for the officers ride slowly and with
+caution.
+
+"Let me lead, captain!" he cries, regardless of martial propriety. "I
+know the way." And it is a case for common sense, not ceremony, and the
+staff-officers say, "Go on." And now there is a race through the night,
+"Badger" having a big lead and easily keeping it. But the road narrows,
+the sounds of fight subside, and when at last the little party reaches
+the outposts they meet the left wing of the regiment briskly marching
+homeward. They see the light of a guard-fire in a hollow a little
+farther to the front, and there a dense throng of Connor's men in
+tattered gray, mingling with the blue of the picket-guards, groups
+about a little knot of officers and three gaunt, ragged, haggard
+fellows, one a bearded man of forty-five or fifty, who leans heavily on
+the shoulder of a supporter, while he grasps the hand of the general and
+looks gratefully into his eyes. Another is a wiry little specimen in the
+relics of a Fire Zouave jacket, the chevrons of a sergeant on his
+sleeve. The third is a tall, lank, long-legged youth, with hollow cheeks
+and big brown eyes, and a brownish fuzz just sprouting on lip and cheeks
+and chin,--a tall lad to whom the elder man turns suddenly, laying a
+thin hand upon his shoulder, a tall lad who looks up shyly and silently
+as the general grasps his hands and begins some words of hearty praise.
+But the general's remarks are brought to sudden stop by the impetuous
+rush of a snorting horse into the midst of the group, the precipitate
+leap of a half-crazed lad from his back to the ground, and the general's
+voice is drowned by that of his graceless orderly, half squeal, half
+choking cry, as the "little 'un" springs upon the tall youth, twining
+legs and arms, both, about him, and the only intelligible word he says
+is "Snipe!" The only answer is a long, straining hug and the almost
+bashful murmur, "Shorty!"
+
+One would say that in that meeting there was interest sufficient for one
+night--and two boys,--but it was by no means all. A few minutes later
+two trooper prisoners, led in beside the litter of their wounded
+captain, were being examined by the general. Both were silent, badly
+shaken by the fall of their horses. One was slightly wounded; neither
+wished to talk. The leader had swooned, and the surgeons were doing
+their best for him.
+
+"What is your captain's name?" was asked the unhurt cavalier, a dashing
+young sergeant who might well lay claim to being of one of the famous
+"first families of Virginia"--a dandy trooper.
+
+"Grayson," was the short reply.
+
+Major Stark and Snipe glanced quickly at each other, and then the former
+spoke. "Pardon me, general; that was the name of the cavalry lieutenant
+captured by Corporal Lawton, here, just before Bull Run. Is this another
+Grayson?" he asked of the prisoner.
+
+"No. You asked our captain's name. He was wounded and has not rejoined
+yet. That's our first lieutenant." And then, as though to emphasize his
+disgust at being bored by "mudsill" questions, the young gallant
+languidly yawned; then, thrusting his hand into the breast of his jaunty
+trooper jacket, with admirable assumption of supreme indifference to his
+surroundings, he drew forth a fine watch, coolly stepped to the fire,
+held it so that the light would shine upon its face, and then was about
+returning it, when the irrepressible Shorty sprang forward into the
+fire-lit circle.
+
+"Where'd you get that watch?" he cried. "Look, Snipe! General! It was
+stolen at school last fall! It's Joy's!"
+
+[Illustration: "Where'd you get that watch?"]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+The week that followed was one not soon to be forgotten by two at least
+of Pop's old boys. To begin with, after all the wear and tear and
+exposure of the month, it was several days before Major Stark, with his
+gallant companions, was able to go into Washington. He lay in a big tent
+close to brigade head-quarters, the guest of the general and the object
+of assiduous attentions from high officials, accomplished surgeons, and
+enthusiastic soldiers, Snipe and Keating coming in for many a word of
+praise and promise of advancement and reward. Even the great President,
+accompanied by Secretary Seward, drove out in his carriage and visited
+the invalid New-Englander and listened to his story, and sent for
+Sergeant Keating and the "two boys." He wanted to see that queerly
+assorted team, said he, and whimsically remarked, after looking them
+over, with a smile for both and a hearty shake of the hand, "Well, the
+long and short of it is, you're both bound to be soldiers, I see.
+Perhaps we can help."
+
+Keating, promptly commissioned a lieutenant in the Second Fire Zouaves,
+was ordered to join that command. Stark, as soon as he was able to move
+with comfort, was to go home and accept the colonelcy of a new regiment
+awaiting him in its camp, Snipe with him. But meantime Mr. and Mrs. Park
+had reached the capital, and had been driven out to Chain Bridge, where
+the fond mother had a very warm reception from all who by this time had
+heard Snipe's school story (and who that got within hail of Shorty any
+day that week had failed to hear it?) and the grim step-father a
+correspondingly cool one. Park had borne more than his share of worry
+and woe for long months past, and as means to the end, had come with the
+cool determination of making George an offer, either to put him through
+college with a fair allowance, or start him in business at Rhinebeck,
+for Park had been in correspondence with the Doctor and with Halsey, and
+had reluctantly come to the conclusion that the boy couldn't have been
+the thief he thought, though of course he was an ingrate and lacking in
+appreciation. But Park found that step-parental authority was not
+recognized in the army. The boy himself was bent on following the
+fortunes of his soldier friends. Major Stark had told the mother of his
+own plans and the President's promises with regard to her son, and the
+fond mother, proud, yet full of fears, yielded to the wishes of her boy
+and the advice of his comrades, and decided against those of her lord
+and master. Park found the atmosphere of the camp uncongenial. It
+chilled him like a channel fog, and he left for home, and pressing
+business, within another day, while Mrs. Park remained. There were other
+sympathetic women there, wives of officers visiting in camp, and she did
+not lack for friends.
+
+But for Snipe and Shorty there came a day of thrilling interest when
+Captain Beach, of the "First Long Island," together with Keating and
+Desmond, of the Zouaves, met at the provost-marshal's in Washington, and
+what a meeting it was! The story of the school-boy days had been told
+the general, who listened with vivid interest. It was he who planned
+further movements and arranged the necessary preliminaries at the War
+Department. Among the few Confederate prisoners in the city at the time
+were young Grayson, captured as a lieutenant just before Bull Run, and
+Spottswood, captured as sergeant the night of the rescue in front of
+Chain Bridge, both of the Virginia cavalry. The latter had wrathfully
+declined to surrender the watch claimed by Shorty to be stolen property
+(those were the earliest--the callow--days of the war, when the wishes
+of prisoners as to their personal property were occasionally respected),
+and a tremendous scene had ensued. But within three days there appeared
+at Washington two young gentlemen, Pop's boys, sent thither in response
+to telegraphic inquiries,--Messrs. Paul Grayson and Clinton Joy,--and
+they had been taken to the Capitol prison by Captain Winthrop, a former
+Pop boy, and there had been an interview between the cousins, Northern
+and Southern; then, a conference between Grayson the Confederate and his
+bumptious statesman, and then Mr. Spottswood very gracefully surrendered
+the watch, which Mr. Joy positively and conclusively identified as his
+own, notwithstanding the obliteration of the name, and Spottswood told
+how it came into his possession. He had spent some time the previous
+winter and spring in Mobile, Savannah, and Charleston, had seen a good
+deal of two young--gentlemen--and he used the word with hesitation--from
+New York, two brothers by the name of Hulker. There had grown up
+something of an intimacy. They had money in abundance at first, but
+finally seemed to run out, and they had to "baw-wo," said Mr.
+Spottswood, with a blush, from their friends. In fact, they had
+"baw-woed" so much from friends to whom he had presented them that he
+felt in honor bound to make it good, and as the young men had to get out
+of the South in a hurry in May, and he had become suspicious as to their
+solvency, he had felt compelled, he said it regretfully, to demand some
+security, and they had left with him diamonds and this watch. The
+diamonds were at his home in Richmond. The watch he unhesitatingly
+turned over, as became a gentleman, to its proper owner. When Lieutenant
+Grayson was told that all this was necessary to clear the good name of
+the young scholar soldier who had captured him, you can imagine his
+interest in the case was by no means diminished.
+
+This matter settled, and a joyous meeting having taken place between the
+four schoolmates, Captains Beach and Winthrop, brother officers now and
+ex-Columbiads, affably supervising, the next thing was to follow up the
+trail of Desmond's statements to Shorty, and this duty was intrusted to
+Keating. An odd feature with the old fire department was the alliance,
+offensive and defensive, which existed among certain companies, in
+contradistinction to the bitter rivalries which were inevitable. In the
+long-continued feud between Big Six and Manhattan Eight whole
+communities were involved. Political societies and clubs took sides with
+one or the other, and rows innumerable went on for years. Downtown
+companies, generally at odds with their neighbors, swore eternal
+friendship with some up-town organization which "ran" in lower
+districts. Marion 9 and Lady Washington 40 "lay" within three blocks of
+each other in the lower Fifth Fire District, but did duty, the former in
+the Fourth and Fifth, the latter in the Sixth and Seventh; turning out,
+of course, for all fires within a few blocks of their respective
+stations; and these two companies were on terms of very distant and
+dignified reserve. Away up-town, in like manner, were Lexington 7 and
+Pacific 28, both of which answered alarms from the Fifth District, both
+of which ran down Third Avenue to the Bowery in so doing, and as a
+consequence, time and again met and raced every inch of the way. The
+long run from Twenty-seventh Street to the Cooper Institute or beyond
+would almost exhaust their own men, but by the time they got far
+down-town there were swarms of allies to man the drag-ropes, 9's men
+with No. 7, 40's lively lads with 28, and, counting on this old
+alliance, Keating called on Desmond to redeem his promise to Shorty and
+tell what he knew about the school or its scholars, and Desmond's story
+was what boys of a later generation would have called "a corker."
+
+He used to be hard up himself, he said, and more than once had had to
+"spout" his watch, and several times in other ways to raise money at a
+pawnbroker's, and there were some young fellows, whom he had twice
+encountered there, regular young Fifth Avenue swells, and one night
+while he was in a stall at the counter, he heard two of them come into
+an adjoining box, and they had a beautiful gold watch on which they
+wished to make a raise. He could not see it even by leaning away
+forward, for the partition prevented, but he could hear distinctly all
+the talk. The pawnbroker didn't want to take it. He said he was afraid.
+He knew both the "young fellers;" they'd often been there before, and he
+knew that watch didn't belong to either of the two. They swore, however,
+that it belonged to a friend in their set who didn't wish to be known,
+but had to have money that very night, and, "why, that watch must have
+been worth over three hundred dollars!" It was a beautiful thing, they
+said, and all they wanted was fifty; their friend would redeem it the
+very next week and pay high. They were so earnest about it that Desmond
+forgot his own troubles in listening to theirs. At last they got some
+thirty or forty dollars and left in a hurry. Desmond looked after them.
+Both wore fur caps pulled down over their ears, and coat-collars up
+almost hiding their heads, although it was quite early in the fall, and,
+though a raw east wind was blowing and a rain pouring, it was not cold
+enough for such attire. Outside the shop they were joined by others who
+were in waiting, three of them, and they scooted back toward the west in
+a hurry. Not two months afterwards Desmond was there again, and a big,
+smooth-faced, smug-looking fellow came in, with his head all bundled up,
+and he had the pawn ticket for that very watch, Desmond knew by the
+talk; and the pawnbroker had some words with the fellow because he tried
+to get it back for less by a good deal than the young men agreed to pay,
+and both got mad and abused each other, and each said he could send the
+other to jail. It was fun to hear them, said Desmond, and he wondered
+who the big man could be, and followed him out and saw him meet the same
+two "young fellers" that were there before. The big man took off his hat
+and wiped his face, he was "so blown with jawing," and Desmond said he
+had a good long look at him, and would know him again anywhere.
+
+Now he was sure he had seen some of those young fellers with the school
+crowd that used to be up at Duncan's every day for luncheon, and in the
+"Shanghai" set that ran with Metamora Hose. But from that time they quit
+going to that pawnshop. The owner told him the police came round there
+looking for that very watch, and he was glad he was rid of them, and of
+that "big, smug-faced feller," too. He felt sure he was a thief. As for
+the boys, the broker said two of them had been there time and again
+before, and they were a hard lot. "Would you know the two if you were to
+see them again?" Keating asked the Zouave.
+
+"I didn't see them, plainly. I couldn't, they were wrapped up so, but I
+could hear them plain, and I'd know their voices among a million."
+
+All this having been duly reported, and Beach, Winthrop, and one or two
+senior officers having been in consultation, this strange meeting was
+decided upon, and, not knowing why they were bidden, Snipe and Shorty
+found themselves one bright September morning in the anteroom of the
+provost-marshal's office. Beach and Winthrop were already there. It was
+just one week after the arrest of the general's orderly by the patrol
+and his incarceration by order of the lieutenant of the guard. There was
+a moment of greeting and quiet chat. Then the boys were shown into a
+side room, and there sat Keating and Desmond. Beach called to the
+latter. "I wish you to sit here with me close to the door and listen to
+every word spoken in the office during the next five minutes." Then he,
+too, seated himself. There was silence a moment or two, then a low-toned
+conference between the provost-marshal and Winthrop, and presently a
+door opened, a somewhat unsteady, clinking step was heard, and then a
+voice, at sound of which Snipe and Shorty started and looked into each
+other's faces, while Beach sat watching Desmond.
+
+"Did you wish to see me, sir?"
+
+The speaker was invisible, but there was no mistaking the voice, with
+its odd, jerky, nervous accent.
+
+"Yes, sir. I have been called upon to explain why the guard held a
+bearer of despatches and an important message last week. You were
+officer of the guard at the time. What have you to say?"
+
+"Why--major--I don't know much about it. The men said they ordered him
+to stop all the way for half a mile, and he defied 'em. He--was all
+covered with dirt and looked like some common volunteer drummer-boy out
+on a drunk. I didn't suppose any general would trust despatches
+to--anybody like that. I thought he was lyin'."
+
+"In point of fact, sir," interposed the provost-marshal, "did you not
+recognize the messenger and have reason to know that his story was true?
+Did you not order him to the cells, refusing to listen?"
+
+"P'r'aps I did, and just because I _did_ know him to be a no-account
+little ragamuffin that used to be runnin' round with the firemen and
+such like----"
+
+Sir Toby Belch listening from ambush to Malvolio's soliloquy at his
+expense could not have looked more amazed and wrathful than did Shorty
+at this. Beach, unable to repress a grin, suppressed him with a gesture.
+
+"You may retire, Mr. Hoover. Remain at the guard-room. I may want you in
+a moment."
+
+And then the party was summoned from its concealment, and then all eyes
+were on Desmond, and Winthrop propounded this question:
+
+"Well, did you recognize any voice?"
+
+"That young feller's--that was in here just now? I couldn't see him
+through the screen, but I never heard his voice before in all me life."
+
+And this ended the first lesson. But there were others to come, for the
+Doctor and Beach had been in rapid correspondence, and when three days
+later still Major Stark, a celebrity now whom Gotham was eager to honor,
+arrived at the Cortlandt Street ferry, faithful Snipe still at his side,
+and Lieutenant Keating, furloughed that he, too, might be lionized,
+there accompanied them the little corporal of Zouaves, Desmond, late of
+"28's Engine."
+
+Aunt Lawrence, with her carriage, was at the ferry, effusive in her
+regrets that Colonel Stark had to go on at once, but grateful that he
+could permit George to remain, for nothing would answer but that dear,
+brave George must spend a few days under her roof before reporting at
+the camp of his new regiment. And with Aunt Lawrence, obsequious, smug,
+assiduous in his attentions to Mahster George, loading up with Mahster
+George's light luggage, and bowing low in homage to Mahster George's
+distinguished commander, as that gallant officer was driven away, was
+Aunt Lawrence's most expensive household luxury, the English butler, and
+as that dignitary closed the door of the Lawrence carriage and lifted
+his hat and wiped his glowing face, and then waddled pompously off in
+quest of a horse-car, Desmond grabbed his officer by the arm. "There's
+the Shanghai that got the watch and jawed the pawnbroker and ran with
+that gang of young fellers," said he. And only another day and Aunt
+Lawrence's butler marched away in the grip of the law, and Aunt
+Lawrence's house-maid lay screaming in simulated hysterics.
+
+A precious pair were these, as events and detectives speedily disclosed,
+and words can hardly describe the shame and horror with which Aunt
+Lawrence presently realized that, to divert suspicion from themselves,
+her own domestics had found means of attaching it to George. Their
+stealings had as yet been confined to old-fashioned trinkets and
+jewelry, which she seldom looked at and the loss of which would not soon
+be discovered. It was not the jewels, but the good name the servitor had
+stolen, that now arrayed all the household against him and his unhappy
+victim, the damsel who so neglected George's room and linen. Binny, the
+butler, went to the police station without a chance to caution her, so
+she went to the priest, and one confession led to another. The girl was
+Irish and had a conscience or compunctions, and returning to her
+mistress, threw herself at her feet, and sobbed out her story. Binny had
+her completely in his power, or made her think he had. It was he who
+compelled her to take the cameo and other jewelry from time to time, and
+who planned more extensive raids to follow. It was he to whom she
+surrendered Seymour's gold pencil-case, which she found on the floor of
+Mahster George's room, but stoutly she declared, when questioned by Mrs.
+Lawrence, that of Joy's beautiful watch she had never even heard.
+
+And this was more than Binny could say when confronted by Desmond, the
+pawnbroker, and certain members of the police force who had had an eye
+on him, especially when within twenty-four hours of his incarceration
+there was landed in the neighboring cell the person of Mr. Briggs, late
+of the First Latin, but no longer on the rolls of Columbia. Others, long
+since fathomed as to character by Pop, were under the watchful eye of
+"the force," and Messrs. Brodrick and the Hulkers, both, betook
+themselves to summer resorts, despite the fact that the tide of fashion
+was turning back from the sea-shore and the mountains. Then Briggs the
+elder, a broken-down politician and former office-holder, was sent for
+and closeted with the Doctor, Halsey, Hoover senior, Martigny, and the
+detective, with the result that within an hour Briggs junior was
+summoned into the presence of the same tribunal, and then his last
+remaining trace of nerve gave way.
+
+Even then he lied, shifted, dodged, accused, but one after another his
+lies were met and overthrown, and at last the miserable story came out
+in driblets, but the chain was complete. To raise small sums he had
+begun selling books, sometimes from his father's scant stock, then from
+other boys' fathers. Binny, on some similar errand bent, had twice
+encountered him and recognized him as the young "fellar" that used to
+come to see Mahster George, and bolt up to his room even when the lad
+was out. Binny found that discovery worth working. He gave Briggs a
+bracelet, once worn by "me sainted wife, now in 'eaven," but Binny said
+he was in need of funds and must dispose of it, and wouldn't mind giving
+Mahster Briggs something "'ansom'" out of what he could get for it. Then
+Binny had Briggs "by the hair," so to speak, and held him for future
+service. Hoover, too, and the Hulkers, had used him as a cat's-paw. They
+loaned him money, and then when he could not repay, demanded service in
+kind. Then the Hulkers themselves were emboldened to try their luck at
+the pawnbroker's, and by going only at night--and generally stormy
+nights--they managed to keep their identity concealed. Briggs was
+dreadfully in debt to both Hoover and the Hulkers when one day in the
+early fall the First Latin indulged in one of its famous charges.
+Briggs, crushed against the bookcase, and making as much noise as
+anybody, was one of the last to quit the spot. Joy's beautiful watch
+caught his eye, dangling at the end of its chain, as the class was
+disentangling, and a quick jerk transferred it to his capacious pocket.
+He swore he never meant to keep it. He only wanted to "have some fun
+with Joy," and to prove it, he said, he ran round to Brodrick's stable
+and told him and the Hulkers all about it, and left it with the Hulkers
+for safe-keeping, and that night they pawned it. He didn't dare report
+it, for they could tell far worse things about him than he could about
+them, but all were scared when they heard of the Doctor's vigorous
+measures, and not daring to return for it themselves, Briggs bethought
+him of Binny, and between them they raised the money necessary to redeem
+it and sent him, Binny, as their emissary. Then the Hulkers hid it
+somewhere, and the next thing Briggs knew Binny, and the Hulkers, too,
+were demanding tribute of him. Briggs vowed he was horrified when he
+found that Snipe was suspected and accused; he always liked Snipe,
+Hoover wouldn't lend him another cent, and he was at his wit's end where
+to raise the money to meet their demands and forestall the threatened
+exposure, when quarter day and the fire came. He saw his opportunity
+when Halsey left the desk unguarded, and ran and scooped some gold out
+of the drawer, poked some of the pieces in his trousers, some in his
+waistcoat, and some in his overcoat-pocket when at the rack. If he poked
+any in Shorty's, which hung next to his, it was all a mistake. He
+wouldn't have done that for the world, he said, and then, as he daren't
+be found with the money, he gave most of it to the Hulkers, as before,
+"for safe-keeping" and to square accounts, and that was about all poor
+Briggs's inquisitors cared to know. A warrant went out for Brodrick, who
+managed to precede it to Montreal, but the Hulkers were quietly
+apprehended and escorted back to Gotham. And here ended the last of the
+cabal against Snipe. Now came the reaction.
+
+One glorious day in late September the old First Latin reassembled in
+strong force at the old school, the occasion being a flag-raising. There
+they were, the same glad-hearted lot of boys that had made merry in the
+old school-room many and many a day, Hoover and Briggs being conspicuous
+by their absence. "Regimental duties," wrote the father of the former,
+would prevent his son's attendance on the auspicious occasion, whereat
+the Doctor winked over his spectacles at the grinning array of
+listeners, and "other engagements," it was casually mentioned, would
+account for the non-appearance of Briggs. At the usual hour of recess
+the whole school, Classical and English departments both, had clustered
+about two young fellows in martial uniform, Snipe Lawton, brown-eyed,
+blushing and shy, towering over most of them in stature, arrayed in the
+trim-fitting frock-coat and complete uniform of a first lieutenant of
+infantry, and Shorty, full to the brim of mingled pride and delight,
+wearing the garb of the famous Zouave regiment to which he had been
+attached, even while being, by order, as he not infrequently remarked,
+on detached duty at brigade head-quarters. This was emphatically Snipe's
+benefit, however, and no one begrudged it to him less than did his old
+chum. A little after noon a burst of martial music was heard far up the
+avenue, and the majestic Doctor waved his thronging boys to their posts,
+and down the stairs they tumbled, tumultuous, and "lined up," six deep,
+on the opposite curb. And then, led by a capital band, a great regiment
+in full marching order, with knapsacks packed and overcoats rolled, came
+striding down the west side of the broad thoroughfare in column of
+fours, and a soldierly-looking colonel reined out as they reached the
+school, and let the right wing, five strong companies, go swinging by
+until the beautiful silken colors, national and State, were directly
+opposite the window, where in immaculate broadcloth and immense dignity
+stood the Doctor, a brand-new bunting flag on his arm, Snipe, with the
+"down haul" halliard on his right, Shorty, with the slack, on his left.
+Then the colonel's powerful voice rang out along the thronging street,
+"Battalio-o-n-n-n halt! Front!" and the whole regiment, at least a
+thousand strong, stood motionless facing the east. Then the band was
+drawn up in front of the right centre company, and at a signal, struck
+up the grand strains of the "Star-Spangled Banner." "Present arms!"
+shouted Colonel Stark, then reined his horse about and lowered his
+glistening sword in salute. The school and the great crowd set up a
+stupendous cheer. The Doctor beamed and waved his white cambric
+handkerchief. Halsey and Meeker and other masters smiled from the
+windows. Snipe hauled away with might and main, Shorty paid out, and the
+beautiful folds of blue and scarlet and dazzling white went sailing
+slowly aloft until they touched the peak of the tall white staff at the
+top of the building. Then the Doctor shook hands with Snipe again and
+again and put his hand on his shoulder and waved to the crowd as though
+he would say "Cheer for Lawton," and cheer they did, and presently that
+cheer swelled into a lusty-lunged roar, for the colonel gave the command
+shoulder and order arms, magnificently executed, followed by "Rest!"
+which gave the regiment leave to make itself heard, and never before had
+Fourth Avenue rung to such acclaim.
+
+Then Snipe shook hands with his old teachers again, poor, pallid
+Meeker's eyes filling with tears, and with John, the janitor, who
+grinned and writhed in ecstasy. Then he and Shorty came bounding down
+the stairs, and another shout went up from the school, and something
+like a sob rose in Shorty's throat as Lawton drew for the first time his
+beautiful sword, the gift of all the classes, and, throwing his left
+arm about the "little 'un's" neck, held him in close hug one second,
+then bounded away to the post of the adjutant, his eyes too full to look
+back, his heart too full to speak. Once more the great regiment sprang
+into column of fours, the arms snapped up to the right shoulder, the
+band broke into a magnificent swinging quickstep, and the Fourth New
+England strode sturdily away to make its mark on many a field, its boy
+adjutant marching at the head of column. Many a long block it went
+before the last of Pop's boys dropped off and turned back, only to find
+that half-holiday had been declared in honor of the event of the day.
+Snipe and Shorty, big Damon and little Pythias, Mr. Lincoln's "long and
+short of it," had seen the last of the old school and school-days, with
+all their fun and frolic and their sad and solemn memories. The old
+First Latin went on to collegiate days minus its soldier boys and the
+little lamented Briggs. After all, there was aroused a bit of sympathy
+for him when the Hulkers were bought off in some mysterious way and
+never appeared for trial, when Brodrick was heard of as "living high" in
+Canada, and only the detestable butler was left to share the punishment
+with the rapscallion of the class. Some boys thought Hoover was so low
+that "even if he didn't steal he put Briggs up to it," and the school
+was furious at the thought of his being an officer in the regular army.
+
+It did poor Hoover little good, however. His regiment was soon taken
+from the comforts of Washington and sent campaigning, and three days'
+marching through Virginia dust proved more than the poor fellow could
+stand. He broke down on the eve of battle, had to be sent to the rear in
+an ambulance, and the regiment said he would be wise to resign: so for
+once wisdom and Hoover worked together. John, the janitor, lived to tell
+many a wonderful tale of the times they had when the First Latin had
+such "fellers" in it as Lawton and Joy, Bertram and Beekman, Julian and
+Prime. Meeker got a new lease of life with the going out of the old
+class and the coming in of the new, for the Doctor did not spoil these
+latter as he had their predecessors, and the Doctor treated him with a
+consideration that had been lacking a long time, for there were days in
+the past when Meeker's poverty and troubles, coupled with other
+circumstantial evidence, had made him the object of the Doctor's
+suspicions, and Meeker knew it, and thanked heaven for the load that was
+lifted when Briggs broke down and bore it all with him. As for the
+Doctor himself, he came at the same hour every day, poked his cane and
+the old jokes at the occupants on the mourners' bench, and never seemed
+more tickled in his life than when, from the distant front, there came a
+joint letter from Damon and Pythias, who happened to meet for one
+blissful evening. The watch episode was a thing he would never speak of,
+but shrewd school-boy observers found a topic that would sometimes start
+him even to the extent of proclaiming subsequent half-holiday, and that
+was "our polemical young friends" who had abandoned the classic shades
+of Columbia for the sword.
+
+"'_Et tunc pugnabant pugnis_,'" he began one day----
+
+"Ha, young gentlemen of the First Latin, behold the line immortalized by
+your predecessors of the year agone. Half-holiday to him who completes
+it with a new reading.
+
+"'_Et tunc--pugna--bant pug--nis_'----
+
+"Who supplies the ellipsis? What! a volunteer already? Let us see: '_Et
+nunc gladiis pugnan_.' Neither brilliant nor metrical, but pregnant with
+patriotic truth. Half-holiday to Douglas, and---- How have the rest
+done, Mr. Halsey?"
+
+"H'm," says Halsey, "rather worse if anything."
+
+"Ha! Ominous report. Take your seats, young gentlemen, and we resume the
+consideration of Xenophon. What's that suggestion? 'Fresh air to clear
+your brains?' Loquax redivivus! However, Mr. Halsey,--there may be
+something in it. We'll try it."
+
+                                    THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's From School to Battle-field, by Charles King
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