Happy opened his eyes slowly and regarded Harry with a long stare.
“Are you a ghost?” he asked solemnly.
“No, I was never more alive than I am now.”
“I don’t believe you, Harry. You’re a ghost and so am I. Look at the dead men lying all around us. We’re just the first up. Why, Harry, nobody could go through the crater of an active volcano, as we’ve done, and live. I was either burned to death or shot to death with a bullet or blown to pieces with a shell. I don’t know which, but it doesn’t matter. What kind of a country is this, Harry, into which we’ve been resurrected?”
“Stop your foolishness, Happy. You’re alive, all right, although you may not be to-morrow night. The whole Army of the Potomac is coming up and there’s going to be another great battle.”
“Then it’s just as well that I’m alive, because General Lee will need me. But, Harry, don’t you think I’ve answered enough questions and that I’ve been awake long enough? Harry, remember that I’m your friend and comrade, almost your brother, and let me go back to sleep.”
“Where is St. Clair? Was he killed?”
“No. A million shells burst over both of us, but we escaped them all. But Arthur will be dead to the world for a while, just the same. His is the fourth figure beyond me, but you couldn’t wake him if you fired a cannon at his ear, and in two minutes you won’t be able to wake me with another cannon.”
Happy’s head fell back as he spoke, and in less than half the time he gave he had joined the band of the original seven sleepers. Harry, stepping lightly over the slumbering figures-he had left his horse on the hill-went back to the staff, where he saw that many were yet watching. At the urgent advice of an older officer he stretched himself between two blankets to protect his body from dew and slept a little before dawn. He, too, had felt the exhaustion shown by the Invincibles, but his nervous system was keyed highly, too high, in fact, to sleep long. Moreover, he seemed to find some new reserve of strength, and when Dalton put his hand upon his shoulder he sprang to his feet, eager and active. Dalton had not been sent on many errands the night before, and, sleeping longer than Harry, he had been up a half hour earlier.
“You’ll find coffee and food for the staff back a little,” said Dalton, “and I’d advise you to take breakfast, Harry.”
“I will. What’s going on?”
“Nothing, except the rising of the sun. See it, Harry, just coming over the edge of the horizon behind those two queer hills.”
The rim of the eastern sky was reddening fast, and Round Top and Little Round Top stood out against it, black and exaggerated. They were raised in the dawn, yet dim, to twice their height, and rose like gigantic towers.
But there was light enough already for Harry to see masses of men on the opposing slopes, and stone fences running along the hillsides, some of which had been thrown up in the night by soldiers.
“I take it that the whole Army of the Potomac is here,” he said.
“So our scouts tell us,” replied Dalton. “Our forces are gathered, too, except the six thousand infantry under Pickett and McLaws and the cavalry under Stuart. But they’ll come.”
Harry and Dalton ate breakfast quickly, and, hurrying back, stood near their chief, ready for any service. All the Southern forces were in line. Heth held the right, Pender the left, and Anderson, Hood, and McLaws and the others were stationed between. The brilliant sun moved slowly on and flooded the town, the hills and the battlefield of the day before with light. The officers of either side with their powerful glasses could plainly see the hostile troops. Harry had glasses of his own, and he looked a long time. But he saw little movement in the hostile ranks. Meade and Hancock and the others had worked hard in the hours of darkness and the Army of the Potomac was ready.