ook over. As he mounted
the banquette a man sprang upon the crest, waving a great brilliant
flag. The captain drew a pistol from his belt and shot him dead. The
body, pitching forward, hung over the inner edge of the embankment, the
arms straight downward, both hands still grasping the flag. The man's
few followers turned and fled down the slope. Looking over the parapet,
the captain saw no living thing. He observed also that no bullets were
coming into the work.

He made a sign to the bugler, who sounded the command to cease firing.
At all other points the action had already ended with a repulse of the
Confederate attack; with the cessation of this cannonade the silence was
absolute.

VI

WHY, BEING AFFRONTED BY A, IT IS NOT BEST TO AFFRONT B

General Masterson rode into the redoubt. The men, gathered in groups,
were talking loudly and gesticulating. They pointed at the dead, running
from one body to another. They neglected their foul and heated guns and
forgot to resume their outer clothing. They ran to the parapet and
looked over, some of them leaping down into the ditch. A score were
gathered about a flag rigidly held by a dead man.

"Well, my men," said the general cheerily, "you have had a pretty fight
of it."

They stared; nobody replied; the presence of the great man seemed to
embarrass and alarm.

Getting no response to his pleasant condescension, the easy-mannered
officer whistled a bar or two of a popular air, and riding forward to
the parapet, looked over at the dead. In an instant he had whirled his
horse about and was spurring along in rear of the guns, his eyes
everywhere at once. An officer sat on the trail of one of the guns,
smoking a cigar. As the general dashed up he rose and tranquilly
saluted.

"Captain Ransome!"--the words fell sharp and harsh, like the clash of
steel blades--"you have been fighting our own men--our own men, sir; do
you hear? Hart's brigade!"

"General, I know that."

"You know it--you know that, and you sit here smoking? Oh, damn it,
Hamilton, I'm losing my temper,"--this to his provost-marshal. "Sir--
Captain Ransome, be good enough to say--to say why you fought our own
men."

"That I am unable to say. In my orders that information was withheld."

Apparently the general did not comprehend.

"Who was the aggressor in this affair, you or General Hart?" he asked.

"I was."

"And could you not have known--could you not see, sir, that you were
attacking our own