THE youth stared at the land in front of him.Its foliages now seemed to veil powers and hor-rors. He was unaware of the machinery of ordersthat started the charge, although from the cor-ners of his eyes he saw an officer, who lookedlike a boy a-horseback, come galloping, wavinghis hat. Suddenly he felt a straining and heavingamong the men. The line fell slowly forwardlike a toppling wall, and, with a convulsive gaspthat was intended for a cheer, the regiment beganits journey. The youth was pushed and jostledfor a moment before he understood the move-ment at all, but directly he lunged ahead andbegan to run.

He fixed his eye upon a distant and promi-nent clump of trees where he had concluded theenemy were to be met, and he ran toward it astoward a goal. He had believed throughout thatit was a mere question of getting over an unpleas-ant matter as quickly as possible, and he ran

179desperately, as if pursued for a murder. Hisface was drawn hard and tight with the stress ofhis endeavor. His eyes were fixed in a luridglare. And with his soiled and disordered dress,his red and inflamed features surmounted by thedingy rag with its spot of blood, his wildlyswinging rifle and banging accouterments, helooked to be an insane soldier.

As the regiment swung from its position outinto a cleared space the woods and thickets be-fore it awakened. Yellow flames leaped towardit from many directions. The forest made a tre-mendous objection.

The line lurched straight for a moment. Thenthe right wing swung forward; it in turn wassurpassed by the left. Afterward the centercareered to the front until the regiment was awedge-shaped mass, but an instant later theopposition of the bushes, trees, and uneven placeson the ground split the command and scatteredit into detached clusters.

The youth, light-footed, was unconsciously inadvance. His eyes still kept note of the clump oftrees. From all places near it the clannish yellof the enemy could be heard. The little flamesof rifles leaped from it. The song of the bulletswas in the air and shells snarled among the tree-tops. One tumbled directly into the middle of ahurrying group and exploded in crimson fury.There was an instant's spectacle of a man, almostover it, throwing up his hands to shield his eyes.

Other men, punched by bullets, fell in gro-tesque agonies. The regiment left a coherenttrail of bodies.

They had passed into a clearer atmosphere.There was an effect like a revelation in the newappearance of the landscape. Some men work-ing madly at a battery were plain to them, andthe opposing infantry's lines were defined by thegray walls and fringes of smoke.

It seemed to the youth that he saw every-thing. Each blade of the green grass was boldand clear. He thought that he was aware ofevery change in the thin, transparent vapor thatfloated idly in sheets. The brown or gray trunksof the trees showed each roughness of their sur-faces. And the men of the regiment, with theirstarting eyes and sweating faces, running madly,or falling, as if thrown headlong, to queer,heaped-up corpses--all were comprehended. Hismind took a mechanical but firm impression, sothat afterward everything was pictured and ex-plained to him, save why he himself was there.

But there was a frenzy made from this furiousrush. The men, pitching forward insanely, hadburst into cheerings, moblike and barbaric, buttuned in strange keys that can arouse the dullardand the stoic. It made a mad enthusiasm that, itseemed, would be incapable of checking itselfbefore granite and brass. There was the deli-rium that encounters despair and death, and isheedless and blind to the odds. It is a temporarybut sublime absence of selfishness. And becauseit was of this order was the reason, perhaps, whythe youth wondered, afterward, what reasons hecould have had for being there.

Presently the straining pace ate up the ener-gies of the men. As if by agreement, the leadersbegan to slacken their speed. The volleys di-rected against them had had a seeming windlikeeffect. The regiment snorted and blew. Amongsome stolid trees it began to falter and hesitate.The men, staring intently, began to wait for someof the distant walls of smoke to move and dis-close to them the scene. Since much of theirstrength and their breath had vanished, they re-turned to caution. They were become menagain.

The youth had a vague belief that he had runmiles, and he thought, in a way, that he was nowin some new and unknown land.

The moment the regiment ceased its advancethe protesting splutter of musketry became asteadied roar. Long and accurate fringes ofsmoke spread out. From the top of a small hillcame level belchings of yellow flame that causedan inhuman whistling in the air.

The men, halted, had opportunity to see someof their comrades dropping with moans andshrieks. A few lay under foot, still or wailing.And now for an instant the men stood, their riflesslack in their hands, and watched the regimentdwindle. They appeared dazed and stupid. Thisspectacle seemed to paralyze them, overcomethem with a fatal fascination. They stared wood-enly at the sights, and, lowering their eyes, lookedfrom face to face. It was a strange pause, and astrange silence.

Then, above the sounds of the outside commo-tion, arose the roar of the lieutenant. He strodesuddenly forth, his infantile features black withrage.

"Come on, yeh fools!" he bellowed. "Comeon! Yeh can't stay here. Yeh must come on."He said more, but much of it could not be under-stood.

He started rapidly forward, with his headturned toward the men. "Come on," he wasshouting. The men stared with blank and yokel-like eyes at him. He was obliged to halt andretrace his steps. He stood then with his backto the enemy and delivered gigantic curses intothe faces of the men. His body vibrated fromthe weight and force of his imprecations. Andhe could string oaths with the facility of a maidenwho strings beads.

The friend of the youth aroused. Lurchingsuddenly forward and dropping to his knees, hefired an angry shot at the persistent woods. Thisaction awakened the men. They huddled nomore like sheep. They seemed suddenly to be-think them of their weapons, and at once com-menced firing. Belabored by their officers, theybegan to move forward. The regiment, involvedlike a cart involved in mud and muddle, startedunevenly with many jolts and jerks. The menstopped now every few paces to fire and load,and in this manner moved slowly on from treesto trees.

The flaming opposition in their front grewwith their advance until it seemed that all for-ward ways were barred by the thin leapingtongues, and off to the right an ominous demon-stration could sometimes be dimly discerned.The smoke lately generated was in confusingclouds that made it difficult for the regiment toproceed with intelligence. As he passed througheach curling mass the youth wondered whatwould confront him on the farther side.

The command went painfully forward until anopen space interposed between them and thelurid lines. Here, crouching and cowering be-hind some trees, the men clung with desperation,as if threatened by a wave. They looked wild-eyed, and as if amazed at this furious disturbancethey had stirred. In the storm there was anironical expression of their importance. Thefaces of the men, too, showed a lack of a certainfeeling of responsibility for being there. It wasas if they had been driven. It was the dominantanimal failing to remember in the supreme mo-ments the forceful causes of various superficialqualities. The whole affair seemed incompre-hensible to many of them.

As they halted thus the lieutenant again be-gan to bellow profanely. Regardless of the vin-dictive threats of the bullets, he went aboutcoaxing, berating, and bedamning. His lips,that were habitually in a soft and childlike curve,were now writhed into unholy contortions. Heswore by all possible deities.

Once he grabbed the youth by the arm."Come on, yeh lunkhead!" he roared. "Comeon! We'll all git killed if we stay here. We'veon'y got t' go across that lot. An' then"--theremainder of his idea disappeared in a blue hazeof curses.

The youth stretched forth his arm. "Crossthere?" His mouth was puckered in doubt andawe.

"Certainly. Jest 'cross th' lot! We can'tstay here," screamed the lieutenant. He pokedhis face close to the youth and waved his ban-daged hand. "Come on!" Presently he grap-pled with him as if for a wrestling bout. It wasas if he planned to drag the youth by the ear onto the assault.

The private felt a sudden unspeakable indig-nation against his officer. He wrenched fiercelyand shook him off.

"Come on herself, then," he yelled. Therewas a bitter challenge in his voice.

They galloped together down the regimentalfront. The friend scrambled after them. In frontof the colors the three men began to bawl:"Come on! come on!" They danced and gy-rated like tortured savages.

The flag, obedient to these appeals, bended itsglittering form and swept toward them. Themen wavered in indecision for a moment, and thenwith a long, wailful cry the dilapidated regimentsurged forward and began its new journey.

Over the field went the scurrying mass. Itwas a handful of men splattered into the faces ofthe enemy. Toward it instantly sprang the yel-low tongues. A vast quantity of blue smokehung before them. A mighty banging made earsvalueless.

The youth ran like a madman to reach thewoods before a bullet could discover him. Heducked his head low, like a football player. Inhis haste his eyes almost closed, and the scene wasa wild blur. Pulsating saliva stood at the cornersof his mouth.

Within him, as he hurled himself forward, wasborn a love, a despairing fondness for this flagwhich was near him. It was a creation of beautyand invulnerability. It was a goddess, radiant,that bended its form with an imperious gesture tohim. It was a woman, red and white, hating andloving, that called him with the voice of hishopes. Because no harm could come to it he en-dowed it with power. He kept near, as if itcould be a saver of lives, and an imploring crywent from his mind.

In the mad scramble he was aware that thecolor sergeant flinched suddenly, as if struck by abludgeon. He faltered, and then became motion-less, save for his quivering knees.

He made a spring and a clutch at the pole.At the same instant his friend grabbed it from theother side. They jerked at it, stout and furious,but the color sergeant was dead, and the corpsewould not relinquish its trust. For a momentthere was a grim encounter. The dead man,swinging with bended back, seemed to be obsti-nately tugging, in ludicrous and awful ways, forthe possession of the flag.

It was past in an instant of time. Theywrenched the flag furiously from the dead man,and, as they turned again, the corpse swayed for-ward with bowed head. One arm swung high,and the curved hand fell with heavy protest onthe friend's unheeding shoulder.