ice with us is far too irregular. The officer stands to
receive a severe reprimand--but there is no reason to believe that he
did not give the order to the courier with all the accuracy with which
he had already delivered it to Winder. He testified that he did so give
it, repeated it word for word to the court. He entrusted it to the
courier, taking the precaution to make the latter say it over to him,
and then he returned to General Jackson, down the stream, before the
bridge they were building. That closed his testimony. He received the
censure of the court, but what he did has been done before."

"The courier testified--"

"No. That is the link that drops out. The courier was killed. A Thunder
Run man--Steven Dagg--testified that he had been separated from the
regiment. Returning to it along the wooded bank of the creek, he arrived
just behind the courier. He heard him give the order to the colonel.
'Could he repeat it?' 'Yes.' He did so, and it was, accurately,
Jackson's order."

"Richard--what did Richard say?"

"He said the man lied."

"Ah!"

"The courier fell before the first volley from the troops in the woods.
He died almost at once, but two men testified as to the only thing he
had said. It was, 'We ought never all of us to have crossed. Tell Old
Jack I carried the order straight.'"

He rose and with a restless sigh began to pace the little room. "I see a
tangle--something not understood--some stumbling-block laid by laws
beyond our vision. We cannot even define it, cannot even find its edges.
We do not know its nature. Things happen so sometimes in this strange
world. I do not think that Richard himself understands how the thing
chanced. He testified--"

"Yes, oh, yes--"

"He repeated to the court the order he had received. It was not the
order that Jackson had given and that Winder had sent on to him, though
it differed in only two points. And neither--and there, Judith, there is
a trouble!--neither was it with entire explicitness an order to do that
which he did do. He acknowledged that, quite simply. He had found at the
time an ambiguity--he had thought of sending again for confirmation to
Winder. And then--unfortunate man! something happened to strengthen the
interpretation which, when all is said, he preferred to receive, and
upon which he acted. Time pressed. He took the risk, if there was a
risk, and crossed the stream."

"Father, do you blame him?"

"He blames himself, Judith, somewhat