WHEN the two youths turned with the flagthey saw that much of the regiment had crum-bled away, and the dejected remnant was comingslowly back. The men, having hurled themselvesin projectile fashion, had presently expended theirforces. They slowly retreated, with their facesstill toward the spluttering woods, and their hotrifles still replying to the din. Several officerswere giving orders, their voices keyed to screams.

"Where in hell yeh goin'?" the lieutenant wasasking in a sarcastic howl. And a red-beardedofficer, whose voice of triple brass could plainlybe heard, was commanding: "Shoot into 'em!Shoot into 'em, Gawd damn their souls!" Therewas a melee of screeches, in which the men wereordered to do conflicting and impossible things.

The youth and his friend had a small scuffleover the flag. "Give it t' me!" "No, let mekeep it!" Each felt satisfied with the other's pos-session of it, but each felt bound to declare, by

189an offer to carry the emblem, his willingness tofurther risk himself. The youth roughly pushedhis friend away.

The regiment fell back to the stolid trees.There it halted for a moment to blaze at somedark forms that had begun to steal upon its track.Presently it resumed its march again, curvingamong the tree trunks. By the time the depletedregiment had again reached the first open spacethey were receiving a fast and merciless fire.There seemed to be mobs all about them.

The greater part of the men, discouraged,their spirits worn by the turmoil, acted as ifstunned. They accepted the pelting of the bul-lets with bowed and weary heads. It was of nopurpose to strive against walls. It was of no useto batter themselves against granite. And fromthis consciousness that they had attempted toconquer an unconquerable thing there seemedto arise a feeling that they had been betrayed.They glowered with bent brows, but danger-ously, upon some of the officers, more particu-larly upon the red-bearded one with the voice oftriple brass.

However, the rear of the regiment was fringedwith men, who continued to shoot irritably at theadvancing foes. They seemed resolved to makeevery trouble. The youthful lieutenant was per-haps the last man in the disordered mass. Hisforgotten back was toward the enemy. He hadbeen shot in the arm. It hung straight and rigid.Occasionally he would cease to remember it, andbe about to emphasize an oath with a sweepinggesture. The multiplied pain caused him toswear with incredible power.

The youth went along with slipping, uncertainfeet. He kept watchful eyes rearward. A scowlof mortification and rage was upon his face. Hehad thought of a fine revenge upon the officerwho had referred to him and his fellows as muledrivers. But he saw that it could not come topass. His dreams had collapsed when the muledrivers, dwindling rapidly, had wavered and hes-itated on the little clearing, and then had recoiled.And now the retreat of the mule drivers was amarch of shame to him.

A dagger-pointed gaze from without his black-ened face was held toward the enemy, but hisgreater hatred was riveted upon the man, who,not knowing him, had called him a mule driver.

When he knew that he and his comrades hadfailed to do anything in successful ways that mightbring the little pangs of a kind of remorse uponthe officer, the youth allowed the rage of the baf-fled to possess him. This cold officer upon amonument, who dropped epithets unconcernedlydown, would be finer as a dead man, he thought.So grievous did he think it that he couldnever possess the secret right to taunt truly inanswer.

He had pictured red letters of curious revenge."We ARE mule drivers, are we?" And now hewas compelled to throw them away.

He presently wrapped his heart in the cloakof his pride and kept the flag erect. He ha-rangued his fellows, pushing against their chestswith his free hand. To those he knew well hemade frantic appeals, beseeching them by name.Between him and the lieutenant, scolding andnear to losing his mind with rage, there was felt asubtle fellowship and equality. They supportedeach other in all manner of hoarse, howling pro-tests.

But the regiment was a machine run down.The two men babbled at a forceless thing. Thesoldiers who had heart to go slowly were con-tinually shaken in their resolves by a knowledgethat comrades were slipping with speed back tothe lines. It was difficult to think of reputationwhen others were thinking of skins. Woundedmen were left crying on this black journey.

The smoke fringes and flames blustered al-ways. The youth, peering once through a sud-den rift in a cloud, saw a brown mass of troops,interwoven and magnified until they appeared tobe thousands. A fierce-hued flag flashed beforehis vision.

Immediately, as if the uplifting of the smokehad been prearranged, the discovered troopsburst into a rasping yell, and a hundred flamesjetted toward the retreating band. A rollinggray cloud again interposed as the regiment dog-gedly replied. The youth had to depend againupon his misused ears, which were tremblingand buzzing from the melee of musketry and yells.

The way seemed eternal. In the clouded hazemen became panicstricken with the thought thatthe regiment had lost its path, and was proceed-ing in a perilous direction. Once the men whoheaded the wild procession turned and came push-ing back against their comrades, screaming thatthey were being fired upon from points whichthey had considered to be toward their own lines.At this cry a hysterical fear and dismay beset thetroops. A soldier, who heretofore had been am-bitious to make the regiment into a wise littleband that would proceed calmly amid the huge-appearing difficulties, suddenly sank down andburied his face in his arms with an air of bowingto a doom. From another a shrill lamentationrang out filled with profane allusions to a general.Men ran hither and thither, seeking with theireyes roads of escape. With serene regularity, asif controlled by a schedule, bullets buffed intomen.

The youth walked stolidly into the midst ofthe mob, and with his flag in his hands took astand as if he expected an attempt to push him tothe ground. He unconsciously assumed the atti-tude of the color bearer in the fight of the pre-ceding day. He passed over his brow a handthat trembled. His breath did not come freely.He was choking during this small wait for thecrisis.

His friend came to him. "Well, Henry, Iguess this is good-by--John."

"Oh, shut up, you damned fool!" replied theyouth, and he would not look at the other.

The officers labored like politicians to beatthe mass into a proper circle to face the men-aces. The ground was uneven and torn. Themen curled into depressions and fitted them-selves snugly behind whatever would frustratea bullet.

The youth noted with vague surprise that thelieutenant was standing mutely with his legs farapart and his sword held in the manner of a cane.The youth wondered what had happened to hisvocal organs that he no more cursed.

There was something curious in this little in-tent pause of the lieutenant. He was like a babewhich, having wept its fill, raises its eyes andfixes upon a distant toy. He was engrossed inthis contemplation, and the soft under lip quiveredfrom self-whispered words.

Some lazy and ignorant smoke curled slowly.The men, hiding from the bullets, waited anx-iously for it to lift and disclose the plight of theregiment.

The silent ranks were suddenly thrilled by theeager voice of the youthful lieutenant bawlingout: "Here they come! Right onto us,b'Gawd!" His further words were lost in a roarof wicked thunder from the men's rifles.

The youth's eyes had instantly turned in thedirection indicated by the awakened and agitatedlieutenant, and he had seen the haze of treacherydisclosing a body of soldiers of the enemy. Theywere so near that he could see their features.There was a recognition as he looked at the typesof faces. Also he perceived with dim amazementthat their uniforms were rather gay in effect,being light gray, accented with a brilliant-huedfacing. Too, the clothes seemed new.

These troops had apparently been going for-ward with caution, their rifles held in readiness,when the youthful lieutenant had discoveredthem and their movement had been interruptedby the volley from the blue regiment. From themoment's glimpse, it was derived that they hadbeen unaware of the proximity of their dark-suited foes or had mistaken the direction. Al-most instantly they were shut utterly from theyouth's sight by the smoke from the energeticrifles of his companions. He strained his visionto learn the accomplishment of the volley, but thesmoke hung before him.

The two bodies of troops exchanged blows inthe manner of a pair of boxers. The fast angryfirings went back and forth. The men in bluewere intent with the despair of their circum-stances and they seized upon the revenge to behad at close range. Their thunder swelled loudand valiant. Their curving front bristled withflashes and the place resounded with the clangorof their ramrods. The youth ducked and dodgedfor a time and achieved a few unsatisfactoryviews of the enemy. There appeared to be manyof them and they were replying swiftly. Theyseemed moving toward the blue regiment, stepby step. He seated himself gloomily on theground with his flag between his knees.

As he noted the vicious, wolflike temper ofhis comrades he had a sweet thought that if theenemy was about to swallow the regimentalbroom as a large prisoner, it could at least havethe consolation of going down with bristles for-ward.

But the blows of the antagonist began togrow more weak. Fewer bullets ripped the air,and finally, when the men slackened to learn ofthe fight, they could see only dark, floatingsmoke. The regiment lay still and gazed. Pres-ently some chance whim came to the pesteringblur, and it began to coil heavily away. The mensaw a ground vacant of fighters. It would havebeen an empty stage if it were not for a fewcorpses that lay thrown and twisted into fantasticshapes upon the sward.

At sight of this tableau, many of the men inblue sprang from behind their covers and madean ungainly dance of joy. Their eyes burnedand a hoarse cheer of elation broke from theirdry lips.

It had begun to seem to them that events weretrying to prove that they were impotent. Theselittle battles had evidently endeavored to demon-strate that the men could not fight well. Whenon the verge of submission to these opinions, thesmall duel had showed them that the propor-tions were not impossible, and by it they hadrevenged themselves upon their misgivings andupon the foe.

The impetus of enthusiasm was theirs again.They gazed about them with looks of upliftedpride, feeling new trust in the grim, alwaysconfident weapons in their hands. And theywere men.