r way through to rescue a fallen comrade.

It was not until the 7th that a truce was arranged to clear this shamble
and then every man in blue was dead save two. Everywhere blood, blood,
blood in dark slippery pools--dead horses--dead men--smashed guns, legs,
arms, torn and mangled pieces of bodies--the earth plowed with shot and
shell.

Thirty days had passed since Grant met Lee in the tangled Wilderness and
the Northern army had lost sixty thousand men, two thousand a day.

It is small wonder that he decided not to try longer "to fight it out on
that line."

Lee had put out of combat as many men for his opponent as he had under
his command at any time and his army with the reinforcements he had
received was now as strong as the day he met Grant.

For twelve days the two armies lay in their entrenchments on this field
of death while the Federal Commander arranged a new plan of campaign.
The sharpshooting was incessant. No man in all the line of blue could
stand erect and live an instant. Soldiers whose time of service had
expired and were ordered home, had to crawl on their hands and knees
through the trenches to the rear.

The new Commander, on whose genius the President and the people had
planted their brightest hopes, had just reached the spot where McClellan
stood in June, 1862. And he might have gotten there by the James under
cover of his gunboats without the loss of a single life.

Again John Vaughan's memory turned to McClellan with desperate
bitterness. The longer he brooded over the hideous scenes of the past
month, the higher rose his blind rage against the President.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE BROTHERS MEET

When Julius, who had returned to John Vaughan's service, saw those piles
of dead men on the field of Cold Harbor he lost faith in the Union
Cause. He made up his mind that the past month's work had more than paid
for that letter to the President and he took to the woods on his own
hook.

He lay down to sleep the night he deserted in a clump of trees near the
Confederate outposts and rested his head on a pillow of pine straw. When
he waked in the morning at dawn he felt something tickle his nose. He
cautiously reached one hand up to see what it was and felt a lock of
hair. He rose slowly, fearing to look till he had gained his feet. He
turned his eyes at last and saw that he had been sleeping on a dead
man's head protruding through the shallow dirt and pine straw that had
been hastily thr