第50章

WHEN the woods again began to pour forth the dark-hued masses of the enemy the youth felt serene self-confidence.He smiled briefly when he saw men dodge and duck at the long screech-ings of shells that were thrown in giant handfuls over them.He stood, erect and tranquil, watch-ing the attack begin against a part of the line that made a blue curve along the side of an adja-cent hill.His vision being unmolested by smoke from the rifles of his companions, he had oppor-tunities to see parts of the hard fight.It was a relief to perceive at last from whence came some of these noises which had been roared into his ears.

Off a short way he saw two regiments fight-ing a little separate battle with two other regi-ments.It was in a cleared space, wearing a set-apart look.They were blazing as if upon a wager, giving and taking tremendous blows.

The firings were incredibly fierce and rapid.

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These intent regiments apparently were oblivious of all larger purposes of war, and were slugging each other as if at a matched game.

In another direction he saw a magnificent brigade going with the evident intention of driv-ing the enemy from a wood.They passed in out of sight and presently there was a most awe-in-spiring racket in the wood.The noise was un-speakable.Having stirred this prodigious up-roar, and, apparently, finding it too prodigious, the brigade, after a little time, came marching airily out again with its fine formation in nowise disturbed.There were no traces of speed in its movements.The brigade was jaunty and seemed to point a proud thumb at the yelling wood.

On a slope to the left there was a long row of guns, gruff and maddened, denouncing the enemy, who, down through the woods, were forming for another attack in the pitiless mo-notony of conflicts.The round red discharges from the guns made a crimson flare and a high, thick smoke.Occasional glimpses could be caught of groups of the toiling artillerymen.In the rear of this row of guns stood a house, calm and white, amid bursting shells.A congregation of horses, tied to a long railing, were tugging frenziedly at their bridles.Men were running hither and thither.

The detached battle between the four regi-ments lasted for some time.There chanced to be no interference, and they settled their dispute by themselves.They struck savagely and pow-erfully at each other for a period of minutes, and then the lighter-hued regiments faltered and drew back, leaving the dark-blue lines shouting.

The youth could see the two flags shaking with laughter amid the smoke remnants.

Presently there was a stillness, pregnant with meaning.The blue lines shifted and changed a trifle and stared expectantly at the silent woods and fields before them.The hush was solemn and churchlike, save for a distant battery that, evidently unable to remain quiet, sent a faint rolling thunder over the ground.It irritated, like the noises of unimpressed boys.The men imagined that it would prevent their perched ears from hearing the first words of the new battle.

Of a sudden the guns on the slope roared out a message of warning.A spluttering sound had begun in the woods.It swelled with amazing speed to a profound clamor that involved the earth in noises.The splitting crashes swept along the lines until an interminable roar was developed.To those in the midst of it it became a din fitted to the universe.It was the whirring and thumping of gigantic machinery, complica-tions among the smaller stars.The youth's ears were filled up.They were incapable of hearing more.

On an incline over which a road wound he saw wild and desperate rushes of men perpet-ually backward and forward in riotous surges.

These parts of the opposing armies were two long waves that pitched upon each other madly at dictated points.To and fro they swelled.

Sometimes, one side by its yells and cheers would proclaim decisive blows, but a moment later the other side would be all yells and cheers.

Once the youth saw a spray of light forms go in houndlike leaps toward the waving blue lines.

There was much howling, and presently it went away with a vast mouthful of prisoners.Again, he saw a blue wave dash with such thunderous force against a gray obstruction that it seemed to clear the earth of it and leave nothing but trampled sod.And always in their swift and deadly rushes to and fro the men screamed and yelled like maniacs.