ing party. Steve held back. "Gawd, man, we can't do
no good! We're both lame men. If we got back a little into the wood we
could see fine. That's better than fighting--when you're all used up
like us--"

The artilleryman regarded him. "No, it isn't better than fighting. I've
been suspicioning you for some time, and I've stopped liking the company
I'm in. All the same, I'm not going to drop it. Now you trot along in
front. Being artillery I haven't a gun any more than you have, but I've
a stick, and there isn't anything in the world the matter with my arm.
It's used to handling a sponge staff. Forward! trot!"

On the other side the ruined station, on the edge of an old field,
Magruder, with him McLaws, waited for the return of a staff officer whom
he had sent to the Grapevine Bridge three miles away. The shell which
had burst over the party clearing the railroad track was but the first
of many. Concealed by the heavy woods, the guns of the Federal rearguard
opened on the grey brigades. Kershaw and Griffith, to the right of the
road, suffered most. Stephen D. Lee sent forward Carlton's battery, and
Kemper's guns came to its aid. They took position in front of the centre
and began to answer the blue guns. A courier arrived from the
skirmishers thrown out toward the dense wood. "Enemy in force and
advancing, sir. Sumner and Franklin's corps, say the scouts."

"All wight!" said Magruder. "Now if Jackthon's over, we'll cwush them
like a filbert."

The staff officer returned. "Well, thir, well, thir? Ith General
Jackthon acroth? Will he take them in the rear while I thrike
here?--Bryan, you look intolerably thober! What ith it?"

"The bridge will not be finished for two hours, sir. Two or three
infantry companies have crossed by hook or crook, but I should say it
would be morning before the whole force is over."

"Damn! Well--"

"I left my horse and got across myself, sir, and saw General Jackson--"

"Well, well, well--"

"He says, sir! 'Tell General Magruder that I have other important duties
to perform'"--

There was a dead silence. Then McLaws spoke with Roman directness. "In
my opinion there are two Jacksons. The one that came down here left the
other one in the Valley."

A great shell came with a shriek and exploded, a fragment mortally
wounding General Griffith at the head of the Mississippi brigade. The
Mississippians uttered a loud cry of anger. Carleton's battery thundered
defiantly. Magruder drew a long