But not one of the three was ever able wholly to forget that hideous dawn. Luckily the Winchesters themselves had suffered little, but they were quite content to remain in their old place by the brook, where the next day a large man in civilian dress introduced himself to d.i.c.k.
"Perhaps you don"t remember me, Mr. Mason," he said, "but in such times as these it"s easy to forget chance acquaintances."
d.i.c.k looked at him closely. He was elderly, with heavy pouches under his eyes and a rotund figure, but he looked uncommonly alert and his pale blue eyes had a penetrating quality. Then d.i.c.k recalled him.
"You"re Mr. Watson, the contractor," he said.
"Right. Shake hands."
d.i.c.k shook his hand, and he noticed that, while it was fat, it was strong and dry. He hated damp hands, which always seemed to him to have a slimy touch, as if their owner were reptilian.
"I suppose business is good with you, Mr. Watson," he said.
"It couldn"t be better, and such affairs as the one I witnessed this morning mean more. But doubtless I have grieved over it as much as you. I may profit by the great struggle, but I have not wished either the war or its continuance. Someone must do the work I am doing. You"re a bright boy, Lieutenant Mason, and I want you still to bear in mind the hint that I gave you once in Washington."
"I don"t recall it, this instant."
"That to go into business with me is a better trade than fighting."
"I thank you for the offer, but my mind turns in other directions. I"m not depreciating your occupation, Mr. Watson, but I"m interested in something else."
"I knew that you were not, Lieutenant Mason. You have too much sense. Your kind could not fight if my kind did not find the sinews, and after the war the woods will be full of generals, and colonels and majors who will be glad to get jobs from men like me."
"I"ve no doubt of it," said d.i.c.k, "but what happened this morning made me think the war is yet far from over."
"We shall see what we shall see, but if you ever want a friend write to me in Washington. General delivery, there will do. Good-by."
"Good-by," said d.i.c.k, and, as he watched the big man walk away, he felt that he was beginning to understand him. He had never been interested greatly in mercantile pursuits. Public and literary life and the soil were the great things to him. Now he realized that the vast strength of the North, a strength that could survive any number of defeats, lay largely in her trade and commerce. The South, almost stationary upon the soil, had fallen behind, and no amount of skill and courage could save her.
Colonel Winchester gave the young officers who had been awake all night permission to sleep, and d.i.c.k was glad to avail himself of it. He still felt weak, and ill, and, with a tender smile, remembering his mother"s advice about the blanket, he spread one in the shade of a small oak and lay down upon it.
Despite the terrible repulse of the morning most of the men had regained their usual spirits. Several were playing accordions, and the others were listening. The Winchesters were known as a happy regiment, because they had an able colonel, strong but firm, efficient and tactful minor officers. They seldom got into mischief, and always they pooled their resources.
One lad was reading now to a group from a tattered copy of "Les Miserables," which had just reached them. He was deep in Waterloo and d.i.c.k heard their comments.
"You wait till the big writers begin to tell about Chickamauga and Gettysburg and Shiloh," said one. "They"ll cla.s.s with Waterloo or ahead of it, and the French and English never fought any such campaign as that when Grant came down through the Wilderness. What"s that about the French riding into the sunken road? I"m willin" to bet it was nothing but a skirmish beside Pickett"s charge at Gettysburg."
"And both failed," said Warner. "There are always brave men on every side in any war. I don"t know whether Napoleon was right or wrong- I suppose he was wrong at that time-but it always makes me feel sad to read of Waterloo."
"Just as a lot of our own people were grieved at the death of Stonewall Jackson, although next to Lee he was our most dangerous foe," said Pennington.
The reader resumed, and, although he was interrupted from time to time by question or comment, his monotone was pleasant and soothing, and d.i.c.k fell asleep. When he awoke his nerves were restored, and he could think of the crater without becoming faint again.
That night Colonel Hertford of the cavalry came to their camp and talked with Colonel Winchester in the presence of d.i.c.k and his comrades of the staff. The disastrous failure of the morning, so the cavalryman said, had convinced all the generals that Lee"s trenches could not be forced, and the commander-in-chief was turning his eye elsewhere. While the deadlock before Petersburg lasted he would push the operations in some other field. He was watching especially the Valley of Virginia, where Early, after his daring raid upon the outskirts of Washington, was being pursued by Sheridan, though not hard enough in the opinion of General Grant.
"It"s almost decided that help will be sent to Sheridan," said Hertford, "and in that event my regiment is sure to go. Yours has served as a mounted regiment, and I think I have influence enough to see that it is sent again as cavalry, if you wish."
Colonel Winchester accepted the offer gladly, and his young officers, in all eagerness, seconded him. They were tiring of inactivity, and of the cramped and painful life in the trenches. To be on horseback again, riding over hills and across valleys, seemed almost Heaven to them, and, as Colonel Hertford walked away, earnest injunctions to use his influence to the utmost followed him.
"It will take the sight of the crater from my mind," said Warner.
"That"s one reason why I want to go."
d.i.c.k, searching his own mind, concluded it was the chief reason with him, although he, too, was eager enough for a more s.p.a.cious life than that of the trench.
"I"m going to wish so hard for it," said Pennington, "that it"ll come true."
Whether Pennington"s wish had any effect or not, they departed two days later, three mounted regiments under the general command of Hertford, his right as a veteran cavalry leader. All regiments, despite new men, had been reduced greatly by the years of fighting, and the three combined did not number more than fifteen hundred horse. But there was not one among them from the oldest to the youngest who did not feel elation as they rode away on the great curve that would take them into the Valley of Virginia.
"It"s glorious to be on a horse again, with the world before you,"
said Pennington. "I was born horseback, so to speak, and I never had to do any walking until I came to this war. The great plains and the free winds that blow all around the earth for me."
"But you don"t have rivers and hills and forests like ours," said d.i.c.k.
"I know it, but I don"t miss them. I suppose it"s what you"re used to that you like. I like a horizon that doesn"t touch the ground anywhere within fifteen or eighteen miles of me. And think of seeing a buffalo herd, as I have, that"s all day pa.s.sing you, a million of "em, maybe!"
"And think of being scalped by the Sioux or Cheyennes, as your people out there often are," said Warner.
Pennington took off his cap and disclosed an uncommonly thick head of hair.
"You see that I haven"t lost mine yet," he said. "If a fellow can live through big battles as I"ve lived through "em he can escape Sioux and Cheyennes."
"So you should. Look back now, and you can see the armies face to face."
They were on the highest hill, and all the cavalry had turned for a last glance. d.i.c.k saw again the flashes from occasional rifle fire, and a dark column of smoke still rising from a spot which he knew to be the crater. He shuddered, and was glad when the force, riding on again, pa.s.sed over the hill. Before them now stretched a desolated country, trodden under foot by the armies, and his heart bled again for Virginia, the most reluctant of all the states to secede, and the greatest of them all to suffer.
Colonel Hertford, Colonel Winchester, and the colonel of the third regiment, a Pennsylvanian named Bedford, rode together and their young officers were just behind. All examined the country continually through gla.s.ses to guard against ambush. Stuart was gone and Forrest was far away, but they knew that danger from the fierce riders of the South was always present. Just when the capital seemed safest Early"s men had appeared in its very suburbs, and here in Virginia, where the hand of every man and of every woman and child also was against them, it was wise to watch well.
As they rode on the country was still marked by desolation. The fields were swept bare or trampled down. Many of the houses and barns and all the fences had been burned. The roads had been torn up by the pa.s.sage of artillery and countless wagons. All the people seemed to have gone away.
But when they came into rougher and more wooded regions they were shot at often by concealed marksmen. A half-dozen troopers were killed and more wounded, and, when the cavalrymen forced a path through the brush in pursuit of the hidden sharpshooters, they found nothing. The enemy fairly melted away. It was easy enough for a rifleman, knowing every gully and thicket, to send in his deadly bullet and then escape.
"Although it"s merely the buzzing and stinging of wasps," said Warner, "I don"t like it. They can"t stop our advance, but I hate to see any good fellow of ours tumbled from his horse."
"Makes one think of that other ride we took in Mississippi," said d.i.c.k.
"In one way, yes, but in others, no. This is hard, firm ground, and we"re not persecuted by mosquitoes. Nor is the country suitable for an ambush by a great force. Ouch, that burnt!"
A bullet fired from a thicket had grazed Warner"s bridle hand. d.i.c.k was compelled to laugh.
"You"re free from mosquitoes, George," he said, "but there are still little bullets flying about, as you see."
A dozen cavalrymen were sent into the thicket, but the sharpshooter was already far away. Colonel Hertford frowned and said:
"Well, I suppose it"s the price we have to pay, but I"d like to see the people to whom we have to pay it."
"Not much chance of that," said Colonel Winchester. "The Virginians know their own ground and the lurking sharpshooters won"t fire until they"re sure of a safe retreat."
But as they advanced the stinging fire became worse. There was no Southern force in this part of the country strong enough to meet them in open combat, but there was forest and thicket sufficient to shelter many men who were not only willing to shoot, but who knew how to shoot well. Yet they never caught anybody nor even saw anybody. A stray glimpse or two of a puff of smoke was the nearest they ever came to beholding an enemy.
It became galling, intolerable. Three more men were killed and the number of wounded was doubled. The three colonels held a consultation, and decided to extend groups of skirmishers far out on either flank. d.i.c.k was chosen to lead a band of thirty picked men who rode about a mile on the right, and he had with him as his second, and, in reality, as his guide and mentor in many ways, the trusty Sergeant Whitley. It was altogether likely that Colonel Winchester would not have sent d.i.c.k unless he had been able to send the wise sergeant with him.
"While you are guarding us from ambush," he said to d.i.c.k, "be sure you don"t fall into an ambush yourself."