-was terrific, Crane wore a
long India rubber rain-coat and was smoking a pipe. He appeared as cool
as though he were looking down from a box at a theatre. I knew that to
Crane, anything that savored of a pose was hateful, so, as I did not want
to see him killed, I called, "You're not impressing any one by doing
that, Crane." As I hoped he would, he instantly dropped to his knees.
When he crawled over to where we lay, I explained, "I knew that would
fetch you," and he grinned, and said, "Oh, was that it?"

A captain of the cavalry came up to Wood and asked permission to withdraw
his troop from the top of the hill to a trench forty feet below the one
they were in. "They can't possibly live where they are now," he
explained, "and they're doing no good there, for they can't raise their
heads to fire. In that lower trench they would be out of range
themselves and would be able to fire back."

"Yes," said Wood, "but all the other men in the first trench would see
them withdraw, and the moral effect would be bad. They needn't attempt
to return the enemy's fire, but they must not retreat."

The officer looked as though he would like to argue. He was a West Point
graduate and a full-fledged captain in the regular army. To him, Wood,
in spite of his volunteer rank of colonel, which that day, owing to the
illness of General Young, had placed him in command of a brigade, was
still a doctor. But discipline was strong in him, and though he looked
many things, he rose from his knees and grimly saluted. But at that
moment, without waiting for the permission of any one, the men leaped out
of the trench and ran. It looked as though they were going to run all
the way to the sea, and the sight was sickening. But they had no
intention of running to the sea. They ran only to the trench forty feet
farther down and jumped into it, and instantly turning, began pumping
lead at the enemy. Since five that morning Wood had been running about
on his feet, his clothes stuck to him with sweat and the mud and water of
forded streams, and as he rose he limped slightly. "My, but I'm tired!"
he said, in a tone of the most acute surprise, and as though that fact
was the only one that was weighing on his mind. He limped over to the
trench in which the men were now busily firing off their rifles and waved
a riding-crop he carried at the trench they had abandoned. He was
standing as Crane had been standing, in silhouette against the sky-lin