“I’ll help you.”
He lifted the lad, rapidly cut away his coat, and slicing it into strips, bound up tightly the two wounds in his shoulder where the bullet had gone in and where it had come out.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood,” he said, “but you’ve got enough left to live on until you gather another supply, and you won’t lose any more now.”
“Thank you,” murmured the boy; “but you’re very good for-for a rebel.”
Harry laughed.
“Why, you innocent child!” he said. “Have they been filling your head with tales of our ferocity and cruelty?”
He went down to the stream, dipped up water in his cap, and brought it back to the boy, who drank eagerly. Then he placed him in a more comfortable position on the turf, and patting his head, said:
“You’ll get well sure, and maybe you and I will meet after the war and be friends.”
All of which came true. Its like happened often in this war. But he went out of Harry’s mind, as he walked on and delivered his message in the edge of Gettysburg. He could not return before seeking the Invincibles, who were surely here in the vanguard-if they were yet alive. Harry shuddered. All his friends might have perished in that whirlwind of death. He soon learned that they had suffered greatly, but that those who were left were lying on the grass of what had been a lawn.
He found the lawn quickly and saw dark figures strewed about upon the ground. They were so still and silent that they looked like the dead, but Harry knew that it was the stupor of exhaustion. As they were inside the lines and needing no watch, there was no sentinel.
Harry stepped over the low fence and looked again at the figures. The moonlight silvered them and they did not stir. He could not see a single form move. It was weird, uncanny, and the blood chilled in his veins. But he shook himself violently, angry at his weakness, and walked among them, looking for the two colonels and the two lieutenants. A figure suddenly sat up before him and a dignified voice said:
“Your footstep awakened me, Harry, and if there is a message, I am here to receive it. But I ask you in the name of mercy to be quick. I was never before so much overpowered that I could not hold up my head a minute.”
Before Harry could speak another figure rose.
“Yes, Harry, be quick if you can, and let us go back to sleep,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire in a pleading voice.
“Thank God I’ve found you both. I have no message for you. I was merely looking to see if all of you were alive.”
“You’ve always had a kind heart, Harry,” said Colonel Talbot, “and we can’t tell you how much we appreciate what you’ve done.”
“Are St. Clair and Happy Tom here?”
“I cannot tell you. We suffered from such tremendous exhaustion that our men fell upon the grass, we with them, and all of us sank into stupor. But, Harry, they must be here! We couldn’t have lost those boys! Why, I can’t think of them as not living!”
“If you’ll let me make a suggestion, lie down and go to sleep again,” said Harry. “I’ll find ’em.”
The two colonels stretched a little, as if they were about to rise and go with him, but the effort was beyond their powers. They sank back and returned to sleep. Harry went on, his heart full of fear for the two young friends who were so dear to him.
The survivors of the Invincibles lay in all sorts of positions, some on their backs, some on their sides, some on their faces, and others doubled up like little children. It was hard to recognize those dark figures, but he came at last to one in a lieutenant’s uniform, and he was sure that it was Langdon. He was afraid at first that he was dead, but he put his hand on his shoulder and shook it.
There was no response, but Harry felt the warmth of the body pass through the cloth to his hand, and he knew that Langdon was living. He shook him again.