This advance of the enemy had seemed to the youth like a ruthless hunting. He began to with rage and . He beat his foot upon the ground, and with hate at the smoke that was approaching like a flood. There was a maddening quality in this seeming resolution of the to give him no rest, to give him no time to sit down and think. Yesterday he had fought and had fled rapidly. There had been many adventures. For to-day he felt that he had earned opportunities for contemplative . He could have enjoyed to uninitiated listeners various scenes at which he had been a witness or ably discussing the processes of war with other proved men. Too it was important that he should have time for physical recuperation. He was sore and stiff from his experiences. He had received his fill of all , and he wished to rest.  
But those other men seemed never to grow weary; they were fighting with their old speed. He had a wild hate for the foe. Yesterday, when he had imagined the universe to be against him, he had hated it, little gods and big gods; to-day he hated the army of the foe with the same great . He was not going to be badgered of his life, like a kitten chased by boys, he said. It was not well to drive men into final corners; at those moments they could all develop teeth and claws.
 
He leaned and into his friend's ear. He menaced the woods with a gesture. "If they keep on chasing us, by Gawd, they'd better watch out. Can't stand TOO much."
 
The friend twisted his head and made a calm reply. "If they keep on a-chasin' us they'll drive us all inteh th' river."
 
The youth cried out at this statement. He behind a little tree, with his eyes burning hatefully and his teeth set in a curlike . The awkward bandage was still about his head, and upon it, over his wound, there was a spot of dry blood. His hair was tousled, and some straggling, moving locks hung over the cloth of the bandage down toward his forehead. His jacket and shirt were open at the throat, and exposed his young bronzed neck. There could be seen spasmodic gulpings at his throat.
 
His fingers twined about his rifle. He wished that it was an engine of power. He felt that he and his companions were being and from sincere convictions that they were poor and . His knowledge of his inability to take for it made his rage into a dark and stormy specter, that him and made him dream of cruelties. The tormentors were flies sucking at his blood, and he thought that he would have given his life for a revenge of seeing their faces in pitiful .
 
The winds of battle had swept all about the , until the one rifle, instantly followed by others, flashed in its front. A moment later the regiment roared its sudden and retort. A wall of smoke settled down. It was furiously and by the knifelike fire from the rifles.
 
To the youth the fighters resembled animals tossed for a death struggle into a dark pit. There was a sensation that he and his fellows, at bay, were pushing back, always pushing fierce onslaughts of creatures who were slippery. Their beams of seemed to get no purchase upon the bodies of their ; the latter seemed to them with ease, and come through, between, around, and about with unopposed skill.
 
When, in a dream, it occurred to the youth that his rifle was an impotent stick, he lost sense of everything but his hate, his desire to smash into the glittering smile of victory which he could feel upon the faces of his enemies.
 
The blue smoke-swallowed line curled and like a snake stepped upon. It swung its ends to and fro in an agony of fear and rage.
 
The youth was not conscious that he was upon his feet. He did not know the direction of the ground. Indeed, once he even lost the habit of balance and fell heavily. He was up again immediately. One thought went through the of his brain at the time. He wondered if he had fallen because he had been shot. But the suspicion flew away at once. He did not think more of it.
 
He had taken up a first position behind the little tree, with a direct determination to hold it against the world. He had not deemed it possible that his army could that day succeed, and from this he felt the ability to fight harder. But the had surged in all ways, until he lost directions and locations, save that he knew............