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of his comrades. During this moment of leisure they seemed all to be engaged in staring with astonishment at him. They had become specta- tors. Turning to the front again he saw, under the lifted smoke, a deserted ground. He looked bewildered for a moment. Then there appeared upon the glazed vacancy of his eyes a diamond point of intelligence. "Oh," he said, comprehending. He returned to his comrades and threw him- self upon the ground. He sprawled like a man who had been thrashed. His flesh seemed strange- ly on fire, and the sounds of the battle continued in his ears. He groped blindly for his canteen. The lieutenant was crowing. He seemed drunk with fighting. He called out to the youth: "By heavens, if I had ten thousand wild cats like you I could tear th' stomach outa this war in less'n a week!" He puffed out his chest with large dignity as he said it. Some of the men muttered and looked at the youth in awe-struck ways. It was plain that as he had gone on loading and firing and cursing without the proper intermission, they had found time to regard him. And they now looked upon him as a war devil. The friend came staggering to him. There was some fright and dismay in his voice. "Are yeh all right, Fleming? Do yeh feel all right? There ain't nothin' th' matter with yeh, Henry, is there?" "No," said the youth with difficulty. His throat seemed full of knobs and burs. These incidents made the youth ponder. It was revealed to him that he had been a barbarian, a beast. He had fought like a pagan who de- fends his religion. Regarding it, he saw that it was fine, wild, and, in some ways, easy. He had been a tremendous figure, no doubt. By this |