ht men back to back, with their bayonets outward
and their butts against their knees, are an awkward proposition for an
enemy. They mumbled the responses because Brown made them do it, and
they kept their eyes skinned because the night seemed full of other
eyes, and sounds.

"And now, you men," said Brown, changing his voice to suit the nature of
his task, "you can get your sleep by fours. I don't care which four of
you goes to sleep first, but there are only two watches of us left, and
there are about four hours left to sleep in, by my reckoning. That's two
hours' sleep for each man. And we'll keep clear of the guardroom. As
I understand my orders, the important point's the cross-roads. I'm
supposed to halt every one who comes, and to ask him his business. And
that'd be impossible to do from the guardroom here. Let this be a lesson
to you men, now. In interpretin' orders, when a point's in doubt, always
look for the meaning of the orders rather than the letter of them,
obeying the letter only when the meaning and the letter are the same
thing. The letter of our orders says the guardroom. The meaning's clear.
We're here to guard the cross-roads. We take the meaning, and let the
letter hang!

"Besides! The way it seems to me, if there's any more trouble cooking
in this neighborhood, it's going to cook pretty fast, and it's going
to boil around that guardroom; and if we're not in the guardroom, why,
that's point number one for us! Leave the guardroom lantern lighted, and
bring out nothing but your cartridge-pouches and the box of ammunition.
Leave everything else where it lies. Quick, now."

They obeyed him on the run, afraid to be out of his sight for a moment
even, trusting him as little children trust a nurse, and ready to do
anything so long as he would only keep them up and doing, and not make
them stay by the scene of the murders. Brown knew their state of mind
as accurately as he knew the range of their service rifles, and he knew
just how he could best keep panic from them. He knew too, if not what
was best to do, at least what he intended doing, and he knew how he
could best get them in a state to do it.

Behind his own mind lay all the while a sense of loneliness and
hopelessness. He did not entertain the thought of failure to hold the
crossroads, and he was so certain that General Baines would come with
his division that he could almost see the advance-guard trotting toward
him down the trunk road. But ther