o had begun the emplacements;
the boyish Major dismounted, subduing his excitement with a dignified
frown; and for a while he was very fussy and very busy, aiding the
battery captain in placing the guns and verifying the depression.

The position of the masked battery was simply devilish; every gun,
hidden completely in the oak-scrub, was now trained on the pass.

Opposite, across the stream, long files of gray infantry were moving to
cover among the trees; behind, a battalion arrived to support the guns;
below, the cavalry had begun to leave the pass; troopers, dismounted,
were carefully removing from the road all traces of their arrival.

Leaning there by the window, the Special Messenger counted the returning
fours as troop after troop retired southward and disappeared around the
bend of the road.

For a while the picks and shovels of the gunners sounded noisily;
concealed riflemen, across the creek, were also busy intrenching. But
by noon all sound had ceased in the sunny ravine; there was nothing to
be seen from below; not a human voice echoed; not a pick-stroke; only
the sweet, rushing sound of the stream filled the silence; only the
shadows of the branches moved.

Warned again by the sentinels to close the battered window and keep the
door shut, she still watched the gunners, through the dirty window
panes, where they now lay under the bushes beside their guns. There was
no conversation among them; some of the artillerymen seemed to be
asleep; some sprawled belly-deep in the ferns, chewing twigs or idly
scraping holes in the soil; a few lay about, eating the remnants of the
morning's scanty rations, chewing strips of bacon rind, and licking the
last crumbs from the palms of their grimy hands.

Along the bush-hidden parapet of earth, heaps of ammunition
lay--cannister and common shell. She recognized these, and, with a
shudder, a long row of smaller projectiles on which soldiers were
screwing copper caps--French hand grenades, brought in by blockade
runners, and fashioned to explode on impact--so close was to be the
coming slaughter of her own people in the road below.

Toward one o'clock the gunners were served noon rations. She watched
them eating for a while, then, nerveless, turned back into the single
room of the cabin and opened the rear door--so gently and noiselessly
that the boyish staff-major who was seated on the sill did not glance
around until she spoke, asking his permission to remain there.