第24章

Presently the latter heard a voice talking softly near his shoulders.Turning he saw that it belonged to the tattered soldier."Ye 'd better take 'im outa th' road, pardner.There 's a batt'ry comin' helitywhoop down th' road an' he 'll git runned over.He 's a goner anyhow in about five minutes--yeh kin see that.Ye 'd better take 'im outa th' road.Where th' blazes does he git his stren'th from?""Lord knows!" cried the youth.He was shaking his hands helplessly.

He ran forward presently and grasped the tall soldier by the arm."Jim! Jim!" he coaxed, "come with me."The tall soldier weakly tried to wrench himself free."Huh," he said vacantly.He stared at the youth for a moment.At last he spoke as if dimly comprehending."Oh! Inteh th' fields? Oh!"He started blindly through the grass.

The youth turned once to look at the lashing riders and jouncing guns of the battery.He was startled from this view by a shrill outcry from the tattered man.

"Gawd! He's runnin'!"

Turning his head swiftly, the youth saw his friend running in a staggering and stumbling way toward a little clump of bushes.His heart seemed to wrench itself almost free from his body at this sight.He made a noise of pain.

He and the tattered man began a pursuit.There was a singular race.

When he overtook the tall soldier he began to plead with all the words he could find."Jim --Jim--what are you doing--what makes you do this way--you 'll hurt yerself."The same purpose was in the tall soldier's face.

He protested in a dulled way, keeping his eyes fastened on the mystic place of his intentions.

"No--no--don't tech me--leave me be--leave me be--"The youth, aghast and filled with wonder at the tall soldier, began quaveringly to question him.

"Where yeh goin', Jim? What you thinking about? Where you going? Tell me, won't you, Jim?"The tall soldier faced about as upon relentless pursuers.In his eyes there was a great appeal.

"Leave me be, can't yeh? Leave me be fer a minnit."The youth recoiled."Why, Jim," he said, in a dazed way, "what's the matter with you?"The tall soldier turned and, lurching danger-ously, went on.The youth and the tattered soldier followed, sneaking as if whipped, feeling unable to face the stricken man if he should again confront them.They began to have thoughts of a solemn ceremony.There was something rite-like in these movements of the doomed soldier.

And there was a resemblance in him to a devotee of a mad religion, blood-sucking, muscle-wrench-ing, bone-crushing.They were awed and afraid.

They hung back lest he have at command a dreadful weapon.

At last, they saw him stop and stand motion-less.Hastening up, they perceived that his face wore an expression telling that he had at last found the place for which he had struggled.His spare figure was erect; his bloody hands were quietly at his side.He was waiting with patience for something that he had come to meet.He was at the rendezvous.They paused and stood, ex-pectant.

There was a silence.

Finally, the chest of the doomed soldier began to heave with a strained motion.It increased in violence until it was as if an animal was within and was kicking and tumbling furiously to be free.

This spectacle of gradual strangulation made the youth writhe, and once as his friend rolled his eyes, he saw something in them that made him sink wailing to the ground.He raised his voice in a last supreme call.

"Jim--Jim--Jim--"

The tall soldier opened his lips and spoke.

He made a gesture."Leave me be--don't tech me--leave me be--"There was another silence while he waited.

Suddenly, his form stiffened and straightened.

Then it was shaken by a prolonged ague.He stared into space.To the two watchers there was a curious and profound dignity in the firm lines of his awful face.

He was invaded by a creeping strangeness that slowly enveloped him.For a moment the tremor of his legs caused him to dance a sort of hideous hornpipe.His arms beat wildly about his head in expression of implike enthusiasm.

His tall figure stretched itself to its full height.

There was a slight rending sound.Then it began to swing forward, slow and straight, in the man-ner of a falling tree.A swift muscular contortion made the left shoulder strike the ground first.

The body seemed to bounce a little way from the earth."God!" said the tattered soldier.

The youth had watched, spellbound, this ceremony at the place of meeting.His face had been twisted into an expression of every agony he had imagined for his friend.

He now sprang to his feet and, going closer, gazed upon the pastelike face.The mouth was open and the teeth showed in a laugh.

As the flap of the blue jacket fell away from the body, he could see that the side looked as if it had been chewed by wolves.

The youth turned, with sudden, livid rage, toward the battlefield.He shook his fist.He seemed about to deliver a philippic.

"Hell--"

The red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer.