e skirmish line sheltered
in knots and singly, behind rocks and knolls and bushes, lay the
Fourteenth Regiment, keeping up a steady, slow fire. From the edge
above, smokily dim against a pure, blue heaven, answered another rattle
of musketry, incessant, obstinate, and spiteful. The combatants on both
sides were lying down; otherwise neither party could have lasted ten
minutes. From Fitz Hugh's point of view not a Confederate uniform could
be seen. But the smoke of their rifles made a long gray line, which was
disagreeably visible and permanent; and the sharp _whit! whit!_ of
their bullets continually passed him, and cheeped away in the leafage
behind.

"Our men can't get on another inch," he ventured say to his commander.
"Wouldn't it be well for me to ride up and say a cheering word?"

"Every battle consists largely in waiting," replied Waldron
thoughtfully. "They have undoubtedly brought up a reserve to face
Thomas. But when Gahogan strikes the flank of the reserve, we shall
win."

"I wish you would take shelter," begged Fitz Hugh. "Everything depends
on your life."

"My life has been both a help and a hurt to my fellow-creatures,"
sighed the brigade commander. "Let come what will to it."

He glanced upward with an expression of profound emotion; he was
evidently fighting two battles, an outward and an inward one.

Presently he added, "I think the musketry is increasing on the left.
Does it strike you so?"

He was all eagerness again, leaning forward with an air of earnest
listening, his face deeply flushed and his eye brilliant. Of a sudden
the combat above rose and swelled into higher violence. There was a
clamor far away--it seemed nearly a mile away--over the hill. Then the
nearer musketry--first Thomas's on the shoulder of the ridge, next
Gildersleeve's in front--caught fire and raged with new fury.

Waldron laughed outright. "Gahogan has reached them," he said to one of
his staff who had just rejoined him. "We shall all be up there in five
minutes. Tell Colburn to bring on his regiment slowly."

Then, turning to Fitz Hugh, he added, "Captain, we will ride forward."

They set off at a walk, now watching the smoking brow of the eminence,
now picking their way among dead and wounded. Suddenly there was a
shout above them and a sudden diminution of the firing; and looking
upward they saw the men of the Fourteenth running confusedly toward the
summit. Without a word the brigade commander struck spurs into