cantered away in his
gray suit were addressed to Cahoots: 'Take good care of your Mas'
Vaughan, Cahoots, and don't come back without him.'

"'I won't, Mastah,' Cahoots flung back and galloped after his lifelong
companion.

"Well, the war brought hard times both for master and man, and there
were no flowery beds of ease even for the officers who wore the gray.
Robert Fairfax took the fortunes of the conflict like a man and a
Virginia gentleman, and with him Cahoots.

"It was at Malvern Hill that the young Confederate led his troops into
battle, and all day long the booming of the cannon and the crash of
musketry rising above the cries of the wounded and dying came to the
ears of the slave waiting in his tent for his master's return. Then in
the afternoon a scattered fragment came straggling back into the camp.
Cahoots went out to meet them. The firing still went on.

"'Whah's Mas' Bob?' his voice pierced through the cannon's thunder.

"'He fell at the front, early in the battle.'

"'Whah's his body den, ef he fell?'

"'We didn't have time to look for dead bodies in that murderous fire. It
was all we could do to get our living bodies away.'

"'But I promised not to go back without him.' It was a wail of anguish
from the slave.

"'Well, you'll have to.'

"'I won't. Whah did he fall?'

"Someone sketched briefly the approximate locality of Robert Fairfax's
resting place, and on the final word Cahoots tore away.

"The merciless shot of the Federals was still raking the field. But amid
it all an old prairie schooner, gotten from God knows where, started out
from the dismantled camp across the field. 'Some fool going to his
death,' said one of the gray soldiers.

"A ragged, tattered remnant of the wagon came back. The horses were
bleeding and staggering in their steps. The very harness was cut by the
balls that had grazed it. But with a light in his eyes and the look of a
hero, Cahoots leaped from the tattered vehicle and began dragging out
the body of his master.

"He had found him far to the front in an abandoned position and brought
him back over the field of the dead.

"'How did you do it?' They asked him.

"'I jes' had to do it,' he said. 'I promised not to go home widout him,
and I didn't keer ef I did git killed. I wanted to die ef I couldn't
find Mas' Bob's body.'

"He carried the body home, and mourned at the burial, and a year later
came back to the regiment with the son who had come after Robert