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.

CHAPTER X.

The tattered man stood musing.

"Well, he was reg'lar jim-dandy fer nerve, wa'n't he," said he finally
in a little awestruck voice. "A reg'lar jim-dandy." He thoughtfully
poked one of the docile hands with his foot. "I wonner where he got
'is stren'th from? I never seen a man do like that before. It was a
funny thing. Well, he was a reg'lar jim-dandy."

The youth desired to screech out his grief. He was stabbed, but his
tongue lay dead in the tomb of his mouth. He threw himself again upon
the ground and began to brood.

The tattered man stood musing.

"Look-a-here, pardner," he said, after a time. He regarded the corpse
as he spoke. "He 's up an' gone, ain't 'e, an' we might as well begin
t' look out fer ol' number one. This here thing is all over. He 's up
an' gone, ain't 'e? An' he 's all right here. Nobody won't bother
'im. An' I must say I ain't enjoying any great health m'self these
days."

The youth, awakened by the tattered soldier's tone, looked quickly up.
He saw that he was swinging uncertainly on his legs and that his face
had turned to a shade of blue.

"Good Lord!" he cried, "you ain't goin' t'--not you, too."

The tattered man waved his hand. "Nary die," he said. "All I want is
some pea soup an' a good bed. Some pea soup," he repeated dreamfully.

The youth arose from the ground. "I wonder where he came from. I left
him over there." He pointed. "And now I find 'im here. And he was
coming from over there, too." He indicated a new direction. They both
turned toward the body as if to ask of it a question.

"Well," at length spoke the tattered man, "there ain't no use in our
stayin' here an' tryin' t' ask him anything."

The youth nodded an assent wearily. They both turned to gaze for a
moment at the