aptain Ransome's battery of six guns.
Provided always with intrenching tools, his men had labored with
diligence during the night, and now his guns thrust their black muzzles
through the embrasures of a really formidable earthwork. It crowned a
slight acclivity devoid of undergrowth and providing an unobstructed
fire that would sweep the ground for an unknown distance in front. The
position could hardly have been better chosen. It had this peculiarity,
which Captain Ransome, who was greatly addicted to the use of the
compass, had not failed to observe: it faced northward, whereas he knew
that the general line of the army must face eastward. In fact, that part
of the line was "refused"--that is to say, bent backward, away from the
enemy. This implied that Captain Ransome's battery was somewhere near
the left flank of the army; for an army in line of battle retires its
flanks if the nature of the ground will permit, they being its
vulnerable points. Actually, Captain Ransome appeared to hold the
extreme left of the line, no troops being visible in that direction
beyond his own. Immediately in rear of his guns occurred that
conversation between him and his brigade commander, the concluding and
more picturesque part of which is reported above.

III

HOW TO PLAY THE CANNON WITHOUT NOTES

Captain Ransome sat motionless and silent on horseback. A few yards away
his men were standing at their guns. Somewhere--everywhere within a few
miles--were a hundred thousand men, friends and enemies. Yet he was
alone. The mist had isolated him as completely as if he had been in the
heart of a desert. His world was a few square yards of wet and trampled
earth about the feet of his horse. His comrades in that ghostly domain
were invisible and inaudible. These were conditions favorable to
thought, and he was thinking. Of the nature of his thoughts his
clear-cut handsome features yielded no attesting sign. His face was as
inscrutable as that of the sphinx. Why should it have made a record
which there was none to observe? At the sound of a footstep he merely
turned his eyes in the direction whence it came; one of his sergeants,
looking a giant in stature in the false perspective of the fog,
approached, and when clearly defined and reduced to his true dimensions
by propinquity, saluted and stood at attention.

"Well, Morris," said the officer, returning his subordinate's salute.

"Lieutenant Price directed me to tell you, sir, that most of