"It"s not that bad," laughed Harry. "We had parched corn yesterday."
"Well, parched corn is none too filling, and we"re going to prepare the banquet at once. A certain Sergeant Whitley will arrive presently with a basket of food, such as you rebels haven"t tasted since you raided our wagon trains at the Second Mana.s.sas, and with him will come one William Shepard, whom you have met often, Mr. Kenton."
"Yes," said Harry, "we"ve met often and under varying circ.u.mstances, but we"re going to be friends now."
"Will you tell me, Captain St. Clair," said d.i.c.k, "what has become of the two colonels of your regiment, which I believe you call the Invincibles?"
St. Clair led them silently to a little wood, and there, sitting on logs, Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire were bent intently over the chess board that lay between them.
"Now that the war is over we"ll have a chance to finish our game, eh, Hector?" said Colonel Talbot.
"A just observation, Leonidas. It"s a difficult task to pursue a game to a perfect conclusion amid the distractions of war, but soon I shall checkmate you in the brilliant fashion in which General Lee always snares and destroys his enemy."
"But General Lee has yielded, Hector."
"Pshaw, Leonidas! General Lee would never yield to anybody. He has merely quit!"
"Ahem!" said Harry loudly, and, as the colonels glanced up, they saw the little group looking down at them.
"Our friends, the enemy, have come to pay you their respects," said Harry.
The two colonels rose and bowed profoundly.
"And to invite you to a banquet that is now being prepared not far from here," continued Harry. "It"s very tempting, ham, cheese, and other solids, surrounded by many delicacies."
The two colonels looked at each other, and then nodded approval.
"You are to be the personal guests of our army," said d.i.c.k, "and we act as the proxies of General Grant."
"I shall always speak most highly of General Grant," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. "His conduct has been marked by the greatest humanity, and is a credit to our common country, which has been reunited so suddenly."
"But reunited with our consent, Leonidas," said Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire. "Don"t forget that I, for one, am tired of this war, and so is our whole army. It was a perfect waste of life to prolong it, and with the North reannexed, the Union will soon be stronger and more prosperous than ever."
"Well spoken, Hector! Well spoken. It is perhaps better that North and South should remain together. I thought otherwise for four years, but now I seem to have another point of view. Come, lads, we shall dine with these good Yankee boys and we"ll make them drink toasts of their own excellent coffee to the health and safety of our common country."
The group returned to a little hollow, in which Sergeant Whitley and Shepard had built a fire, and where they were already frying strips of bacon and slices of ham over the coals. Shepard and Harry shook hands.
"I may as well tell you now, Mr. Kenton," said Shepard, "that Miss Henrietta Carden, whom you met in Richmond, is my sister, and that it was she who hid in the court at the Curtis house and took the map. Then it was I who gave you the blow."
"It was done in war," said Harry, "and I have no right to complain. It was clever and I hope that I shall be able to give your sister my compliments some day. Now, if you don"t mind, I"ll take a strip of that wonderful bacon. It is bacon, isn"t it? It"s so long since I"ve seen any that I"m not sure of its ident.i.ty, but whatever it is its odor is enticing."
"Bacon it surely is, Mr. Kenton. Here are three pieces that I broiled myself and a broad slice of bread for them. Go ahead, there"s plenty more. And see this dark brown liquid foaming in this stout tin pot! Smell it! Isn"t it wonderful! Well, that"s coffee! You"ve heard of coffee, and maybe you remember it."
"I do remember tasting it some years ago and finding it good. I"d like to try it again. Yes, thank you. It"s fine."
"Here"s another cup, and try the ham also."
Harry tried it, not once but several times. Langdon sat on the ground before the fire, and his delight was unalloyed and unashamed.
"We have raided a Yankee wagon train again," he said, "and the looting is splendid. Arthur, I thought yesterday that I should never eat again. Food and I were such strangers that I believed we should never know each other, any more, or if knowing, we could never a.s.similate. And yet we seem to get on good terms at once."
While they talked a tall thin youth of clear dark complexion, carrying a long bundle under his arm, approached the fire and Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire welcomed him with joy.
"Julien! Julien de Langeais, my young relative!" he cried. "And you are indeed alive! I thought you lost!"
"I"m very much alive, sir," said young De Langeais, "but I"m starved."
"Then this is the place to come," said d.i.c.k, putting before him food, which he strove to eat slowly, although the effort at restraint was manifestly great. Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire introduced him to the Union men, and then asked him what was the long black bag that he carried under his arm.
"That, sir," replied De Langeais, smiling pathetically, "is my violin.
I"ve no further use for my rifle and sword, but now that peace is coming I may be able to earn my bread with the fiddle."
"And so you will! You"ll become one of the world"s great musicians. And as soon as we"ve finished with General Grant"s hospitality, which will be some time yet, you shall play for us."
De Langeais looked affectionately at the black bag.
"You"re very good to me, sir," he said, "to encourage me at such a time, and, if you and the others care for me to play, I"ll do my best."
"Paganini himself could do no more, but, for the present, we must pay due attention to the hospitality of General Grant. He would not like it, if it should come to his ears that we did not show due appreciation, and since, in the course of events, and in order to prevent the mutual destruction of the sections, it became necessary for General Lee to arrange with someone to stop this suicidal war, I am glad the man was General Grant, a leader whose heart does him infinite credit."
"General Grant is a very great man, and he has never proved it more fully than today," said d.i.c.k, who sat near the colonels-his first inclination had been to smile, but he restrained it.
"Truly spoken, young sir," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. "General Lee and General Grant together could hold this continent against the world, and, now that we have quit killing one another, America is safe in their hands. Harry, do you think I"ve eaten too much? I wouldn"t go beyond the exploits of a gentleman, but this food has a wonderful savor, and I can"t say that I have dined before in months."
"Not at all, sir, you have just fairly begun. As Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire pointed out, General Grant would be displeased if we didn"t fully appreciate his hospitality and prove it by our deeds. Here are some sardines, sir. You haven"t tasted "em yet, but you"ll find "em wonderfully fine."
Colonel Leonidas Talbot took the sardines, and then he and Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire rose suddenly and simultaneously to their feet, a look of wonder and joy spreading over their faces.
"Is it really he?" exclaimed Colonel Talbot.
"It"s he and none other," said Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire.
A tall, powerfully built, gray-haired man was coming toward them, his hands extended. Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire stepped forward, and each grasped a hand.
"Good old John!"
"Why, John, it"s worth a victory to shake your hand again!"
"Leonidas, I"ve been inquiring, an hour or two, for you and Hector."
"John Carrington, you"ve fulfilled your promise and more. We always said at West Point that you"d become the greatest artilleryman in the world, and in this war you"ve proved it on fifty battle fields. We"ve often watched your work from the other side, and we"ve always admired the accuracy with which you sent the sh.e.l.ls flying about us. It was wonderful, John, wonderful, and it did more than anything else to save the North from complete defeat!"
A smile pa.s.sed over John Carrington"s strong face, and he patted his old comrade on the shoulder.
"It"s good to know, Leonidas, that neither you nor Hector has been killed," he said, "and that we can dine together again."
"Truly, truly, John! Sit down! It"s the hospitality of your own general that you share when you join us. General Lee would never make terms with men like McClellan, Burnside and Hooker. No, sir, he preferred to defeat them, much as it cost our Union in blood and treasure, but with a man of genius like General Grant he could agree. Really great souls always recognize one another. Is it not so, John?"
"Beyond a doubt, Leonidas. We fully admit the greatness and lofty character of General Lee, as you admit the greatness and humanity of General Grant. One nation is proud to have produced two such men."
"I agree with you, John. All of us agree with you. The soldiers of General Lee"s army who are here today will never dispute what you say. Now fall on, and join us at this board which, though rustic, is indeed a most luxurious and festive one. As I remember at West Point, you were a first-cla.s.s trencherman."