pockets to warm them, and squatted
down under the breastwork to keep a little out of the wind. One thing
they talked about a good deal was something to eat. They described
meals they had had at one time or another as personal adventures, and
discussed the chances of securing others in the future as if they were
prizes of fortune. One listening and seeing their thin, worn faces and
their wasted frames might have supposed they were starving, and they
were, but they did not say so.

Towards the middle of the afternoon there was a sudden excitement in the
camp. A dozen men saw them at the same time: a squad of three men down
the road at the farthest turn, past their picket; but an advancing
column could not have created as much excitement, for the middle man
carried a white flag. In a minute every man in the battery was on the
breastwork. What could it mean! It was a long way off, nearly half a
mile, and the flag was small: possibly only a pocket-handkerchief or
a napkin; but it was held aloft as a flag unmistakably. A hundred
conjectures were indulged in. Was it a summons to surrender? A request
for an armistice for some purpose? Or was it a trick to ascertain their
number and position? Some held one view, some another. Some extreme ones
thought a shot ought to be fired over them to warn them not to come on;
no flags of truce were wanted. The old Colonel, who had walked to the
edge of the plateau outside the redoubt and taken his position where he
could study the advancing figures with his field-glass, had not spoken.
The lieutenant who was next in command to him had walked out after
him, and stood near him, from time to time dropping a word or two of
conjecture in a half-audible tone; but the Colonel had not answered a
word; perhaps none was expected. Suddenly he took his glass down, and
gave an order to the lieutenant: "Take two men and meet them at the turn
yonder; learn their business; and act as your best judgment advises. If
necessary to bring the messenger farther, bring only the officer who has
the flag, and halt him at that rock yonder, where I will join him." The
tone was as placid as if such an occurrence came every day. Two minutes
later the lieutenant was on his way down the mountain and the Colonel
had the men in ranks. His face was as grave and his manner as quiet as
usual, neither more nor less so. The men were in a state of suppressed
excitement. Having put them in charge of the second sergeant the Colonel