re the three
had gone ten feet the minies took a hand. The wounded courier lay
beneath his horse, and the horse screamed twice, the sound rising above
the roar of the guns. A ball pierced Edward's cap, another drew blood
from the lawyer's hand. The fisherman was a tall and wiry man; as he ran
he swayed like a mast in storm. The three reached the courier, dragged
him from beneath the horse, and found both legs crushed. He looked at
them with lustreless eyes. "You can't do anything for me, boys. The
general says please try to take those three guns up there. He's going to
charge the line beyond, and they are in the way."

"All right, we will," said the lawyer. "Now you put one arm round Cary's
neck and one round mine--"

But the courier shook his head. "You leave me here. I'm awful tired. You
go take the guns instead. Ain't no use, I tell you. I'd like to see the
children, but--"

In the act of speaking, as they lifted him, a ball went through his
throat. The three laid the body down, and, heads bent between shoulders,
ran over and through the corn toward the ravine. Two thirds of the way
across, the fisherman was shot. He came to his knees and, in falling,
clutched Edward. "Mast's overboard," he cried, in a rattling voice. "Cut
her loose, damn you!--I'll take the helm--" He, too, died. Cary and the
lawyer got back to the gully and gave the order.

The taking of those guns was no simple matter. It resembled child's play
only in the single-mindedness and close attention which went to its
accomplishment. The regiment that reached them at last and took them, and
took what was left of the blue gunners, was not much more than half a
regiment. The murk up here on this semi-height was thick to choking; the
odour and taste of the battle poisoned brass on the tongue, the colour that
of a sand storm, the heat like that of a battleship in action, and all the
place shook from the thunder and recoil of the tiers of great guns beyond,
untaken, not to be taken. A regiment rushed out of the rolling smoke, by
the half regiment. "Mississippi! Mississippi!--Well, even Mississippi isn't
going to do the impossible!" As the line went by, tall and swinging and
yelling itself hoarse, the colonel was wounded and fell. The charge went on
while the officer--he was an old man, very stately looking--dragged himself
aside, and sitting in the sedge tied a large bright handkerchief above a
wound in his leg. The charge dashed itself against the hillsid