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diff --git a/37672-h/37672-h.htm b/37672-h/37672-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff98e8b --- /dev/null +++ b/37672-h/37672-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9960 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + +<head> + + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of From School To Battle-field, by Charles King. + </title> + + <style type="text/css"> + + blockquote { + text-align:justify; + } + + body { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + } + + .booktitle { + letter-spacing:3px; + } + + .centered { + text-align:center; + font-weight:bold; + } + + div.centered { + text-align:center; + } + + div.centered table { + margin-left:auto; + margin-right:auto; + text-align:left; + } + + div.inset12 { + margin-top:1em; + margin-bottom:1em; + margin-left:auto; + margin-right:auto; + } + + div.inset12 { + width:12em + } + + div.inset12 p { + text-indent:0; + } + + .figcenter { + padding:1em; + text-align:center; + font-size:0.8em; + border:none; + margin:auto; + text-indent:1em; + } + + .h1 { + font-size:2em; + margin:.67em 0; + } + + .h1, + .h2, + .h3, + .h4 { + font-weight:bolder; + text-align:center; + text-indent:0; + } + + h1, + h2, + h3, + h4 { + text-align:center; + } + + .h2 { + font-size:1.5em; + margin:.75em 0; + } + + .h3 { + font-size:1.17em; + margin:.83em 0; + } + + .h4 { + margin:1.12em 0 ; + } + + hr.chapter { + margin-top:6em; + margin-bottom:4em; + } + + hr.tb { + margin:2em 25%; + width:50%; + } + + p { + text-align:justify; + margin-top:.75em; + margin-bottom:.75em; + text-indent:0; + } + + p.author { + text-align:right; + margin-right:10%; + } + + p.caption { + text-indent:0; + text-align:center; + font-weight:bold; + margin-bottom:2em; + } + + p.spacer { + margin-top:2em; + margin-bottom:3em; + } + + .pagenum { +/* visibility:hidden; remove comment out to hide page numbers */ + position:absolute; + right:2%; + font-size:75%; + color:gray; + background-color:inherit; + text-align:right; + text-indent:0; + font-style:normal; + font-weight:normal; + font-variant:normal; + } + + .poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + margin-bottom:1em; + text-align:left; + } + + .poem .stanza { + margin:1em 0em 1em 0em; + } + + .poem p { + margin:0; + padding-left:3em; + text-indent:-3em; + } + + .poem span.i0 { + display:block; + margin-left:0em; + padding-left:3em; + text-indent:-3em; + } + + .smcap { + font-variant:small-caps; + } + + .tdl { + text-align:left; + } + + .tdr { + text-align:right; + padding-right:1em; + } + + .tdrfirst { + text-align:right; + padding-right:1em; + font-size:80%; + } + + </style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="588" alt="Cover" /> +</div> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a id="Frontispiece"></a> +<img src="images/ill01.jpg" width="400" height="583" alt=""Come down aff the top o' dthat harrse!" Page 257" /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">"Come down aff the top o' dthat harrse!" Page <a href="#Page_257">257</a></p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/tp.jpg" width="400" height="640" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h1 class="booktitle">FROM SCHOOL TO BATTLE-FIELD</h1> + +<p class="h3">A STORY OF THE WAR DAYS</p> + +<p class="h4">BY</p> + +<p class="h2">CAPTAIN CHARLES KING, U.S.A.</p> + +<p class="h4">AUTHOR OF "TROOPER ROSS," ETC.</p> + +<p class="h4">ILLUSTRATED BY<br /> +VIOLET OAKLEY AND CHARLES H. STEPHENS</p><p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h4">PHILADELPHIA<br /> +J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY<br /> +1899</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h4"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1898,</span><br /> +BY<br /> +J. B. Lippincott Company.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h3">Table of Contents</p> + +<div class="inset12"> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER XV.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>CHAPTER XX.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>CHAPTER XXI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>CHAPTER XXII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXIII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXIV.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>CHAPTER XXV.</b></a><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="h3">ILLUSTRATIONS</p><div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td class="tdl"> </td><td class="tdrfirst">PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl">"Come down aff the top o' dthat harrse!"</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Frontispiece"><i>Frontispiece.</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl">Almost senseless, till Shorty strove to lift his bleeding head upon his knee</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl">"I couldn't stand it. I had to go"</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl">She was permitted to read and to weep over Snipe's pathetic letter</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl">First capture of the advancing arms of the Union</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl">"Where'd you get that watch?"</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_302">302</a></td></tr> +</table></div> +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[9]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch01.jpg" width="400" height="155" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="h2">FROM SCHOOL TO BATTLE-FIELD.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[10]</span>—unless +we can trap them over to Hoboken. What +shall we do, anyhow?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"There's that Virgil," he began, tentatively.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[11]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,"<span class="pagenum">[12]</span> +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 <i>London Illustrated +News</i>,—the Scots Grays in the mêlée 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<span class="pagenum">[13]</span> +company of the old New York volunteer department,—a +curious thing, indeed, to be found in a school-boy's +room.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[14]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[15]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[16]</span> +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 +Cæsar, 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,<span class="pagenum">[17]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Patter, patter, patter! drip, drip, drip! the rain came +pelting in steady shower. The gusty wind blew the<span class="pagenum">[18]</span> +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!</p> + +<p>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——"</p> + +<p>"Shut up!" said Snipe, at this juncture, suddenly,<span class="pagenum">[19]</span> +impetuously throwing up his hand. "Twenty-third +Street!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Right! Down comes the lever!" was the next +announcement. "Upper Fifth, I'll bet a bat! Listen!"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[20]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch02.jpg" width="400" height="173" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum">[21]</span> +"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<span class="pagenum">[22]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[23]</span> +"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 <i>open +sesame</i>, 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<span class="pagenum">[24]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[25]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[26]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[27]</span> +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,<span class="pagenum">[28]</span> +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 <i>gamins</i>.</p> + +<p>And all this explanation as our two youngsters are +scooting through the dripping rain for Union Square.</p> + +<p>As they sped across Fifth Avenue a long white seam +flashed into view just beyond the Washington statue,<span class="pagenum">[29]</span> +and went like a dim streak sailing away up Fourth +Avenue.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Lay low, Snipe; that's the Metamora. Look out—look +out for the——"</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep02.jpg" width="400" height="235" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ill02.jpg" width="400" height="574" alt="Almost senseless, till Shorty strove to lift his bleeding head upon his knee." /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">Almost senseless, till Shorty strove to lift his bleeding head upon his knee.</p><p class="spacer"> </p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch03.jpg" width="400" height="181" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[31]</span></p> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[32]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[33]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[34]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[35]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[36]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[37]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[38]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>solus</i> for a smoke at +a neighboring stable, that something of an unusual nature +was in the wind.<span class="pagenum">[39]</span></p> + +<p>"Why don't you go out to recess, Hoover?" said he, +shortly. "If any lad needs fresh air, it's you."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Impatiently the master repeated his question, and +then, sullen and scowling, Hoover answered,—</p> + +<p>"I can have trouble enough—here."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" asked Othello.</p> + +<p>"They're layin' for me,—at least Snipe is."</p> + +<p>"By Snipe you mean Lawton, I suppose. What's the +trouble between you?" and the master sat grimly eying +the ill-favored fellow.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[40]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Joy?" he asked. "I <i>beg</i> pardon. +<i>Mr.</i> 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"My watch is gone, sir!"</p> + +<p>"Gone, Mr. Joy? You terrify me!" said Mr. Meeker, +whose habit it was to use exaggerated speech. "When—and +how?"</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[41]</span> +struck. You may remember, sir, you bade me put it +up."</p> + +<p>"I do remember. And when did you first miss it?"</p> + +<p>"Before we got across Twenty-fifth Street, sir."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Hoover," said he, "I've known you seven years, and +will have no dodging. Tell me what you know."</p> + +<p>"I—I—don't <i>know</i> anything, sir," was the answer, +"but you ask John. He does."<span class="pagenum">[42]</span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Hoover tells me you know where Joy's watch went +and who took it. Out with the story!" demanded he.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[43]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch04.jpg" width="400" height="181" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[44]</span> +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,<span class="pagenum">[45]</span> +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 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> to three <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> 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 <i>vis a tergo</i><span class="pagenum">[46]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[47]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[48]</span> +for recitation in the Æneid, 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,</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<i>Non ignara mali, miseris succerere disco</i>,"</p></blockquote> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[49]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum">[50]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Lawton—Carey! Back to your seats!" orders +Beach.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Yes</i>, 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.<span class="pagenum">[51]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[52]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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,<span class="pagenum">[53]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Red!"</p> + +<p>Beach compresses his lips. "M—n—no. That hardly +describes it. Next."</p> + +<p>"Carnation," hazards Van Kleeck.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Vermilion!"<span class="pagenum">[54]</span></p> + +<p>"Scarlet!"</p> + +<p>"Carrot color!"</p> + +<p>"Solferino!"</p> + +<p>"Magenta!"</p> + +<p>"Pea-green!"</p> + +<p>"Sky-blue!"</p> + +<p>"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,—</p> + +<p>"Fl-a-a-me color."</p> + +<p>"Right!" says the master, whereupon half a dozen +contestants from below spring to their feet, with indignation +in their eyes:</p> + +<p>"Well, what did I say, sir?"</p> + +<p>"That's exactly what I meant, sir."</p> + +<p>"I'll leave it to Bliss if that wasn't my answer, sir."</p> + +<p>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 "<i>nous</i>" 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<span class="pagenum">[55]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[56]</span> +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.<span class="pagenum">[57]</span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>But when confronted with this statement by the elders +of the "Sacred Band" Briggs promptly and indignantly +denied it.</p> + +<p>"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? <i>No</i>, sir!"</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[58]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lawton!" he panted, "Mr. Halsey says he<span class="pagenum">[59]</span> +wishes to speak with you, and to please come right +back."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep04.jpg" width="400" height="252" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[60]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch05.jpg" width="400" height="173" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[61]</span> +something had gone sadly amiss; and that was +the case now.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[62]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[63]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[64]</span> +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.<span class="pagenum">[65]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>Twice that morning had Shorty tried to get him aside +with sympathetic question, but the elder shook his head.<span class="pagenum">[66]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[67]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What!" he says. "Another occupant! Where, +then, is the</p> + +<blockquote><p>'<i>Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum</i>'?"</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum">[68]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Anything wrong, Mr. Halsey?"</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"<i>Behaved</i> rather better than usual, sir."</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum">[69]</span></p> + +<p>"The ayes have it. The class may retire."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>And then the three know enough to stand no longer +on the order of their going. Their faces are full of<span class="pagenum">[70]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[71]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep05.jpg" width="400" height="161" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[72]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch06.jpg" width="400" height="163" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[73]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[74]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum">[75]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[76]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[77]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[78]</span> +mighty, struggling upheaval the class surged about him +and that unstable table.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"But those behind cried 'Forward!'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And those before cried 'Back!'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[79]</span> +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.<span class="pagenum">[80]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[81]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[82]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[83]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Has our friend Snipe often been in need of money?" +he asked.</p> + +<p>"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——"</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>"He wouldn't borrow," said Shorty, indignantly; "last +of all from Hoover. None of us ever owe <i>him</i> anything +except——" And Shorty gulps, and the tears that were +starting to his eyes burn out before the sudden fire of +his wrath.</p> + +<p>"Except what?" asks Pop, deliberately.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[84]</span> +relax. It is his way of laughing and he enjoys it, but +Shorty doesn't.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Yes," suggested Pop, "they say it's all a—what?"</p> + +<p>"Shame," said Shorty, well knowing that that shame +is mentally qualified by a most unqualified adjective.</p> + +<p>Pop ponders a moment. "Has none of the boys +missed anything besides Joy,—no trinkets, rings, anything?"</p> + +<p>"Hoover and Briggs are always missing something, +sir, and Seymour lost a gold pencil."</p> + +<p>"But Lawton never borrowed and didn't owe anybody,—in +school, I mean?" asks Pop.</p> + +<p>"Didn't owe anybody <i>anywhere</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"What's the reason Hoover isn't at school?" asks +Pop, and while his face does not change the eyes study +closely.</p> + +<p>"He's afraid of trouble because some of that Metamora +set tripped and hurt Snipe, running to a fire last +Saturday."</p> + +<p>"That's what you get for running to fires, sir. Young +gentlemen have no business mingling with crowds and<span class="pagenum">[85]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>paterfamilias</i>. Run along!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[86]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch07.jpg" width="400" height="174" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum">[87]</span> +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.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<i>Aut impendere viam, aut poscere causas.</i>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[88]</span> +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.<span class="pagenum">[89]</span></p> + +<p>"Hear anything?" he asked, in undertone, as though +he needed not to be told that Shorty had gone to inquire.</p> + +<p>"No news, sir," said Loquax, with lips that twitched +alarmingly. "Mrs. Lawrence will be here right after +school."</p> + +<p>"Then you stay. I may need you," said the Doctor, +and pointed to the bench.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[90]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen of the First Latin," he said, "the school +is honored by a visit from one of Columbia's most distinguished<span class="pagenum">[91]</span> +alumni. Shall we give him an exhibition +performance in the Anabasis or—take half holiday?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What I wish to know is something of your haunts,<span class="pagenum">[92]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[93]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[94]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"We spent 'em at base ball when the weather was<span class="pagenum">[95]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>Mr. Park is severely judicial. School-boy impetuosity +must not be permitted to ruffle him. With great dignity +he begins,—</p> + +<p>"I do not approve of young lads having unlimited<span class="pagenum">[96]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"He <i>couldn't</i> tell his mother, even when he was nearly<span class="pagenum">[97]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Then this is the excuse," says Park, severely, "for +his resorting to pawnbrokers—with stolen property."</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[98]</span> +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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep07.jpg" width="400" height="310" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[99]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch08.jpg" width="400" height="205" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[100]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[101]</span> +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 +<i>had</i> 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. <i>Then</i> 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<span class="pagenum">[102]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum">[103]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[104]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum">[105]</span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, all right," snarled Briggs. "If you want to +run with thieves and pickpockets you're welcome. I +don't."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ill03.jpg" width="400" height="568" alt=""I couldn't stand it. I had to go."" /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">"I couldn't stand it. I had to go."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Dear Shorty</span>,—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 +<span class="pagenum">[107]</span>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 <i>was</i> 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 +<span class="pagenum">[108]</span>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 <i>you</i> 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 +<span class="pagenum">[109]</span>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.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum">[110]</span></p> +<p>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.</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Snipe.</span></p></blockquote> + +<p>The little reader was almost sobbing when he got +through, but the Doctor was on his feet and listening in +undisguised interest and sympathy.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Nobody, sir. Nobody was at home. I brought it +right to you."</p> + +<p>"Then leave it with me and say nothing about it till +I tell you. I will see your grandfather to-morrow."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep08.jpg" width="400" height="218" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[111]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch09.jpg" width="400" height="189" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[112]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[113]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[114]</span> +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!<span class="pagenum">[115]</span> +<i>Et tunc pugnabant pugnis</i>—— 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. <i>Et +tunc—pugna—bant pug</i>—— 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<span class="pagenum">[116]</span> +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.</p> + +<blockquote><p>'<i>Et tunc pugnabant pugnis sine sanguine nasi.</i>'</p></blockquote> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[117]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[118]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, sir," said Halsey, briefly. "Fighting again."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum">[119]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"May I say a word, sir?" he asked, as he rose respectfully.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"So'm I, sir," said the youngster, desperately, "but +I can't—till you get out of the way."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, sir, in view of the penalty," was the prompt +answer.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[120]</span> +letter apiece. Any other enormities to report, Mr. +Halsey?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir,—Hoover. The janitor says that he cursed +and abused him at recess for obeying your orders."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[121]</span> +<i>monstrum horrendum</i>, 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. +<i>What?</i>"</p> + +<p>"Polyblasphemous!" says Shorty, with twitching +lips, the Irish in him coming to the top despite his weight +of woe.</p> + +<p>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 <i>jeu</i><span class="pagenum">[122]</span> +<i>d'esprit</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>And Hoover means it.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep09.jpg" width="400" height="217" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ill04.jpg" width="600" height="429" alt="She was permitted to read and to weep over Snipe's pathetic letter." /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">She was permitted to read and to weep over Snipe's pathetic letter.</p><hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch10.jpg" width="400" height="161" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[124]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>But all this time the search for the absent boy had +gone on unremittingly. Shorty had promised faithfully<span class="pagenum">[125]</span> +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 "<i>Imperator</i>," in Halsey's big, round +hand the inscription "<i>Nulli Secundus</i>," 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<span class="pagenum">[126]</span> +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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[127]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[128]</span> +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 <i>paters</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum">[129]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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,<span class="pagenum">[130]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"When did the Doctor give you this?" he asks, in low +tone; but now the boys are still as mice and listening +intently.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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-<span class="pagenum">[131]</span>colored +door flies open and Meeker appears, pale and +excited.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Halsey!" he cries, "a house right back of us is +all in a blaze. Shall I dismiss my class?"</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[132]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[133]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep10.jpg" width="400" height="259" alt="" /> +</div><hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[134]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch11.jpg" width="400" height="187" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[135]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[136]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[137]</span> +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,<span class="pagenum">[138]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[139]</span> +his active assailants, felt it unsafe to venture among a +lot of the First Latin.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You've cleaned me out of the last one. Go buy +some if you want 'em."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[140]</span> +added, with proper indifference to the infant garments. +Halsey thought a moment.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Gone with the Doctor, sir," said Briggs, glad enough +to have no harder question to answer.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[141]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Didn't you tell me Prime was down there, somewhere?" +asked Halsey of Doremus.</p> + +<p>"He's sure to be, sir. His coat's here yet."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>At last Halsey beckoned them to his side.</p> + +<p>"Where were you when the class followed me into +the other room?" asked he of Briggs.</p> + +<p>"<i>With</i> 'em, sir!" said Briggs, with eagerness. +"Wasn't I, Brodrick? We were among the first to +follow."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," asseverated Brodrick as positively. "We +chased right in after you."<span class="pagenum">[142]</span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"A minute or two, anyhow," declared Briggs. "I +thought school was dismissed or I wouldn't 'a' run."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Hoover was there, sir, and Shorty Prime."</p> + +<p>"When you came out, do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Ye-ye-yes, sir. 't least Prime was. I didn't see +Hoover."</p> + +<p>"Where was Prime? Are you sure he was there?"</p> + +<p>"Right up at the Doctor's desk, sir, where you were +sitting."</p> + +<p>"He was there still when you came out?"</p> + +<p>"Ye-yes, sir. Wasn't he, Brodrick?"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[143]</span> +Latin, Prime and Beekman, and Prime was a sight to +behold.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Where's Julian?"</p> + +<p>"Gone home, sir. He's wet through."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I, sir? I went like a streak for 61."</p> + +<p>"At once, do you mean?—right after the class ran +after me into Mr. Meeker's room?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Before</i> the class ran after you," said Shorty, with an +injured air. No fireman would waste so many valuable<span class="pagenum">[144]</span> +seconds. "I was down-stairs and out of the school before +they were fairly off the benches."</p> + +<p>"How could you get your cap, sir?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Give them a still! What's that?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Did you speak to any of them? What boys saw +you coming back?" asked Halsey, thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean you ran to Twenty-sixth Street and +back in that time?"</p> + +<p>"<i>More</i>'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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[145]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you ought not to have run when you did," +said he, "but, as it is, I'm thankful."</p> + +<p>And Shorty could have sworn Othello's swarthy hand +was trembling.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Where was the letter written—Lawton's letter—that +you took to the Doctor this morning?"</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum">[146]</span></p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Halsey, "I know. See if there are any +more."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep11.jpg" width="400" height="355" alt="" /> +</div> +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[147]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch12.jpg" width="400" height="177" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[148]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[149]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"There's that sneak Briggs now," he quickly whispered +to his chum. "What are those fellows planning, +do you s'pose?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum">[150]</span></p> + +<p>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——"</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[151]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Sa-ay, stop! Hold on!" cried Hulker. "Here, +I'll—I'll pay it now. But of all the dash, dash, dashed +mean——"<span class="pagenum">[152]</span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Was that red-headed specimen there yet when you +came up, Martigny?" asked Julian.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; but he scuttled away down-stairs as soon +as he saw me. Who is he?"</p> + +<p>"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,<span class="pagenum">[153]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Ha, Joy! Julian!" he cried, as they raised their caps. +"What brings you here?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Where'd you hear it?" asked the Doctor of the +third youngster, desirous first of ascertaining where the +leak occurred.</p> + +<p>"I was over at the school a few minutes ago. The +janitor told me, and Mr. Halsey and Prime were just +going away together."<span class="pagenum">[154]</span></p> + +<p>"Just going away together! Why, I supposed everybody +had left the building an hour ago."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"But was it so, sir? Have you heard of Lawton?"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[155]</span> +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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[156]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[157]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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——"</p> + +<p>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, <i>pater</i>, is +more than enough for the class. "He looks like a +ghost," says Bliss. "What's coming next?"</p> + +<p>Nothing came—ahead of the Doctor. At the usual +moment he appeared, and as usual levelled his stick at<span class="pagenum">[158]</span> +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."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep12.jpg" width="400" height="279" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[159]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch13.jpg" width="400" height="179" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[160]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[161]</span> +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?</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[162]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[163]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[164]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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?"<span class="pagenum">[165]</span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[166]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>Then, of course, she wrote, and so did Shorty. Both +letters begged Snipe to return, but by this time Mr. Park<span class="pagenum">[167]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[168]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep13.jpg" width="400" height="330" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[169]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch14.jpg" width="400" height="165" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[170]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[171]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[172]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[173]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[174]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[175]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>"I don't care if it does!" panted Shorty. "I'd rather +be killed than kept here any longer. I hope he <i>will</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[176]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>"But there's his examination for college," said the +head of the Primes, himself a don of Columbia.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"But then he's so small for his years," was the next +objection.</p> + +<p>"All the better soldier! Those big, long giants break<span class="pagenum">[177]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"The young rascal!" says the head of the house.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[178]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Shorty, father sent me up with some dinner,—and +there's a letter, looks like Mr. Snipe's writin'."</p> + +<p>The door flew open and the letter was seized.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Shorty</span>," 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 <i>are</i> 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<span class="pagenum">[179]</span> +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.</p> + +<p class="author">"<span class="smcap">Snipe.</span>"</p></blockquote> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep14.jpg" width="400" height="384" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[180]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch15.jpg" width="400" height="181" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[181]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>But as the day wore on and the mud thickened in the +middle of the road, and staff-officers, orderlies, and ambulances<span class="pagenum">[182]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[183]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[184]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[185]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum">[186]</span> +just when they were counting on a homeward move to +the rear.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum">[187]</span></p> + +<p>At last he turned to the stalwart, silent captain from +the regiment over the way.</p> + +<p>"What do your people say, Captain Stark?" he asks.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Well, you were mustered in about the same date +we were. Don't some of your boys talk of going home, +and wanting to?"</p> + +<p>"Not—audibly," says Stark.</p> + +<p>"Well, they must be thinking a lot. They are fixed +pretty much as ours are," hazards a field-officer.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"That brown-eyed young fellow I've seen round your +tent?" queries the colonel, deeming it wise to change +the tenor of the talk.</p> + +<p>"The very one."</p> + +<p>"How'd you come to take him? He's too light built<span class="pagenum">[188]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Looks all legs," hazards the colonel.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>"No. What did he want?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Very well. Form your company," says the captain.</p> + +<p>The long wailing notes of the tattoo and the roll of +the drums came abruptly to an end. The silent, shadowy<span class="pagenum">[189]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"In fun, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>But he wasn't back at tattoo, nor at taps. Not until +eleven o'clock did Stark hear the sound of the young<span class="pagenum">[190]</span> +soldier's voice. Lawton was scratching at the tent-flap.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" shouted the captain.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[191]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch16.jpg" width="400" height="174" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[192]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[193]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[194]</span> +knapsacks for the move, and the lad came, pale and +troubled.</p> + +<p>"Are you ill, Lawton?" demanded Major Stark.</p> + +<p>"No, sir. I just—got some bad news."</p> + +<p>"Folks ill?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; it's something a sergeant in the Fire Zouaves +told me."</p> + +<p>"You don't wish to go home, do you?"</p> + +<p>"I do, sir; but I won't. I'm going with the company."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; I do."</p> + +<p>"It leaves you out of the race for vacancies among the +corporals."</p> + +<p>"No matter, sir. That'll come when we reorganize +for three years."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[195]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[196]</span> +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 +<i>homps</i>!" and every musket jumped from the ground. +"Prese-e-e-nt <i>homps</i>!" 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<span class="pagenum">[197]</span> +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,<span class="pagenum">[198]</span> +"hi, hiing" every foot of the way, and Major Stark +turned and signalled to his orderly, and the lad rode up +alongside.</p> + +<p>"These are your old friends, I take it, Lawton. Sit +here where you can see them."</p> + +<p>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 <i>you</i>?" 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.</p> + +<p>"One would hardly say those fellows could have<span class="pagenum">[199]</span> +brought you ill news, Lawton. They seem like old +friends."</p> + +<p>"I knew them well when at school in New York, sir."</p> + +<p>"Who is Shorty?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Would yours, do you think,—if they knew?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. But my father's been dead a long time. +My mother married again, and—I've been shifting for +myself of late."</p> + +<p>"I understand," said the major, inclining his head; +"but does your mother know now?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[200]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[201]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"The horses? Yes, sir, they'll be through feeding in +ten minutes."</p> + +<p>"Very well. I'm to go forward with four companies +at dusk. You needn't, if you wish to write—or anything."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep16.jpg" width="400" height="252" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[202]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch17.jpg" width="400" height="181" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[203]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[204]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum">[205]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[206]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[207]</span> +slanting path, if they kept on in the same direction, just +about a mile from here. Holman's with the outposts +now, sir."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[208]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[209]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"I wish so, too," said the major. "Lawton, ride back +and guide the column. It may lose the way."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[210]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>On past the peering, shadowy knots of soldiers of Sergeant +Holman's party he led them, the hard-breathing,<span class="pagenum">[211]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[212]</span> +acts as though there were others ahead there," whispered +Stark. "It may be only the lieutenant's. Here +he comes now!"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[213]</span> +open common," said Stark. "Why, look! There it is +again, yet it was dark just now."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>All of a sudden, low, clear, and distinct, a whistle +was sounded not four hundred yards away. The first<span class="pagenum">[214]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"<span class="pagenum">[215]</span></p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>"You have no orderly, lieutenant," said Major Stark. +"Let Lawton ride back with you until you reach our +lines. I'd be better satisfied."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[216]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum">[217]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>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,—</p> + +<p>"You shall. Bring twenty men and come along."</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum">[218]</span> +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?<span class="pagenum">[219]</span> +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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[220]</span> +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,—</p> + +<p>"Hullo! What brings you back? Anything the +matter over yawnduh?" And that "yawnduh" betrays +the Virginian.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ill05.jpg" width="400" height="570" alt="First capture of the advancing arms of the Union." /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">First capture of the advancing arms of the Union.</p> +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[222]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch18.jpg" width="400" height="182" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[223]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[224]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum">[225]</span> +"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,<span class="pagenum">[226]</span> +and then gently asked him which he would prefer,—to +be carried into Centreville or wait there until a +surgeon could come out.</p> + +<p>"I do not care," said the wounded boy, with a sigh. +"Can't you suppress this somehow?"</p> + +<p>"The bleeding?" asked Stark, anxiously. "Why, I +thought I had."</p> + +<p>"No,—the whole business. I don't want mother to +know I'm hurt."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[227]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[228]</span> +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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum">[229]</span> +"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:</p> + +<p>"You have done admirably, my lad. How old are +you?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I told them I was eighteen. To-night I tried to +prove I was as good as my word."</p> + +<p>A smile went round the room. The general beamed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[230]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[231]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[232]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep18.jpg" width="400" height="307" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[233]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch19.jpg" width="400" height="167" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum">[234]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[235]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>No wonder there was anxiety in the wearied eyes of +the Union leaders, as at last the little division of General<span class="pagenum">[236]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[237]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[238]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[239]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[240]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[241]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[242]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[243]</span> +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,<span class="pagenum">[244]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[245]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep19.jpg" width="400" height="196" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[246]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch20.jpg" width="400" height="180" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[247]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Herald</i> 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,<span class="pagenum">[248]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[249]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum">[250]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[251]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[252]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[253]</span> +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."<span class="pagenum">[254]</span></p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[255]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."<span class="pagenum">[256]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Come down aff the top o' dthat harrse!" shouted a +Milesian veteran who knew his trade.</p> + +<p>"Despatches for General McClellan! Most important!" +panted Shorty. "Ordered not to lose a minute——"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Don't you dare touch that!" almost screamed the +lad. "I tell you, I'm a general's orderly!"</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[258]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Dead silence for a moment, then,—</p> + +<p>"Put him in the cell," said Hoover, and turned loftily +away.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[259]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch21.jpg" width="400" height="169" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[260]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Let go that ear," he said, in quiet tone, and jeer and +laughter ceased. "Who ordered this?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"The lieutenant, sir," answered Shorty's conductor, +obeying instantly, and speaking with a deference much<span class="pagenum">[261]</span> +exceeding that which he had shown to the suckling subaltern +commanding the guard.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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——"</p> + +<p>"Where is the despatch? Let go that collar, Sergeant +Hanley," and Shorty stood released.</p> + +<p>"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——"</p> + +<p>"What did you do with them?" interrupted the sergeant, +glowering at Hanley.</p> + +<p>"Sure I don't know, sergeant. The lootenent ordered +him into the cells. He was sassin' everybody."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"What became of the despatch, I say?" demanded +the first sergeant, frowning around upon the now silent +circle.<span class="pagenum">[262]</span></p> + +<p>"Corcoran took it, sir," ventured a young soldier, +presently.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Where's the papers you took from this—young +man?"<span class="pagenum">[263]</span></p> + +<p>"Sure I put 'em on the officer of the guard's table, +sir."</p> + +<p>"Where's he?"</p> + +<p>"Gone to breakfast, sir."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Obey orders. Sit in there," and he pointed to the +open cage, "till I come back. I'll see to the despatches."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[264]</span> +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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Don't ye remember Desmond, 28's Engine?"</p> + +<p>"Desmond! Of course. Why, what brought you +here?"</p> + +<p>"The same squint-eyed, pasty-faced pup that did you, +I s'pose. Sa-ay, Shorty, <i>you</i>'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?"<span class="pagenum">[265]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"But how'd you get here?" he asked. "How'd you +know me so quick?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>And there was no time for more. Straight to the<span class="pagenum">[266]</span> +cage the sergeant stalked, and for the life of him Shorty +couldn't help standing attention, as he did to his brigadier-general.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum">[267]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Winthrop—Captain Winthrop! Don't you know +me? Regy Prime!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"In the name of all that's preposterous, Regy, what +are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Who ordered him confined? Who took his despatches +away?" demanded the older captain, the old +officer of the day, with threatening eyes.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Call Sergeant Hanley," said he, and Hanley came. +The question was repeated.</p> + +<p>"The officer of the guard, Lieutenant Hoover," said +he, in answer.</p> + +<p>"My compliments to the lieutenant, and say I wish to<span class="pagenum">[268]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[269]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Now don't let this mishap trouble you, Regy. No +harm has been done. Good will come of it. Now, +good luck to you."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[270]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch22.jpg" width="400" height="173" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>the</i> brigade was chopping trees in the woods a mile<span class="pagenum">[271]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[272]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>"Ah, did it?" queried the general, with provoking +calm. "And was nobody hurt?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody was <i>hit</i>, sir," answered Shorty, with temper +rising still higher. "But a dozen might have been."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[273]</span> +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 <i>was</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum">[274]</span> +the colored hostler, presently came round to the big +tent.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[275]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Anything unusual about?"</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[276]</span> +lie flat and look up, and then they could get within a +rod or two."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Did the patrol stop at your outpost?" the general +asked the sergeant.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Did you see any troops?"<span class="pagenum">[277]</span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>And while the sergeant spoke the soldier had resumed +his watch, and suddenly they heard him whisper, "Hist!"</p> + +<p>"What do you see or hear?" murmured the sergeant, +springing to his side.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It's only me, suh; Marse Finlay's Brennus, suh," +and there can be no doubting the Ethiopian accent.<span class="pagenum">[278]</span></p> + +<p>"Who's with you, nigger? Who's back of you there?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody, suh. I'se all alone, suh, but they's some +gen'lemen way back, suh. They done give me a letter."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Is you gen'lemen—Yankees?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Dey done gimme a paper," he whispers, and the +general interrupts.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[279]</span> +strains his eyes and studies eagerly; bends closer to the +light and studies again. Then, straightening up suddenly, +he turns upon the young negro.</p> + +<p>"Where'd you leave them? How far out?"</p> + +<p>"'Bout two miles, suh; p'r'aps not dat much."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure about the troops,—about the number? +There are none others?"</p> + +<p>"Ye-as, suh. Dey ain't any udder companies near."</p> + +<p>"And you can guide us right to the spot?"</p> + +<p>"Ye-as, suh. Certain, suh."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ep22.jpg" width="400" height="244" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[280]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch23.jpg" width="400" height="184" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[281]</span> +for once in his life, and the burden of his song was +Snipe and Sergeant Keating.</p> + +<p>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 <i>did</i> 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<span class="pagenum">[282]</span> +brushing him off. Everybody was so crazy with +yelling and shouting that for a minute they didn't seem +to realize the situation."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[283]</span> +little sergeant joined them at once. "It's all up," said +he. "We hain't got no dis<i>cipp</i>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<span class="pagenum">[284]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum">[285]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[286]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[287]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[288]</span> +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.<span class="pagenum">[289]</span></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[290]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[291]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>We know the rest.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[292]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch24.jpg" width="400" height="177" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[293]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[294]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[295]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[296]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[297]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[298]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[299]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum">[300]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum">[301]</span> +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!"</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Grayson," was the short reply.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Where'd you get that watch?" he cried. "Look, +Snipe! General! It was stolen at school last fall! It's +Joy's!"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ill06.jpg" width="400" height="564" alt=""Where'd you get that watch?"" /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">"Where'd you get that watch?"</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[303]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch25.jpg" width="400" height="177" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum">[304]</span> +the long and short of it is, you're both bound to be soldiers, +I see. Perhaps we can help."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[305]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[306]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[307]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[308]</span> +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[309]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[310]</span> +good long look at him, and would know him again +anywhere.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum">[311]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Did you wish to see me, sir?"</p> + +<p>The speaker was invisible, but there was no mistaking +the voice, with its odd, jerky, nervous accent.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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'."</p> + +<p>"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?"<span class="pagenum">[312]</span></p> + +<p>"P'r'aps I did, and just because I <i>did</i> know him to be +a no-account little ragamuffin that used to be runnin' +round with the firemen and such like——"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You may retire, Mr. Hoover. Remain at the guard-room. +I may want you in a moment."</p> + +<p>And then the party was summoned from its concealment, +and then all eyes were on Desmond, and Winthrop +propounded this question:</p> + +<p>"Well, did you recognize any voice?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum">[313]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[314]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[315]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[316]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[317]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[318]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[319]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum">[320]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>It did poor Hoover little good, however. His regiment +was soon taken from the comforts of Washington<span class="pagenum">[321]</span> +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<span class="pagenum">[322]</span> +that was "our polemical young friends" who had abandoned +the classic shades of Columbia for the sword.</p> + +<p>"'<i>Et tunc pugnabant pugnis</i>,'" he began one day——</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'<i>Et tunc—pugna—bant pug—nis</i>'——</p> + +<p>"Who supplies the ellipsis? What! a volunteer +already? Let us see: '<i>Et nunc gladiis pugnan</i>.' Neither +brilliant nor metrical, but pregnant with patriotic truth. +Half-holiday to Douglas, and—— How have the rest +done, Mr. Halsey?"</p> + +<p>"H'm," says Halsey, "rather worse if anything."</p> + +<p>"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."</p><p class="h3">THE END.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's From School to Battle-field, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM SCHOOL TO BATTLE-FIELD *** + +***** This file should be named 37672-h.htm or 37672-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/6/7/37672/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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