SCENE 1. _Night._ Heavy forest. Gen. Sherman disc. looking away to R.

Occasional flashes of lightning, and thunder in the distance. Occasional picket firing, R. Staff, L.

SHERMAN. A terrible storm! The men must be wet and hungry. Orderly! (_Enter Ord. L. U. E._) Tell the commissary to hurry the hot coffee and fresh food to the front at once. (_Ex. Ord. L. U. E._) I must cross the river before daylight, or my opportunity is lost. Martel! (_Enter Telegraph Operator, L. U. E._) Tell Schofield and Howard they must force a passage of the river at four o’clock, at all hazards. (_Op. works machine and waits._) Do they understand?

OPERATOR. They do. (_Enter Halcom, R. U. E., coatless, hair dishevelled, wounded._)

SHERMAN. (_Rushing to grasp his hand._) In heaven’s name, Halcom, from where do you come?

HALCOM. The rebel camp.

SHERMAN. How did you escape? (_Men offer clothing._)

HALCOM. Ask God, and the angel sent to my relief. (_Declining clothes._) Thank you, gentlemen, I need nothing now but a coat.

SHERMAN. Ah! A woman at the bottom of it. (_Halcom watches out R._) I sent word to Hood that if any harm came to you, I would retaliate on every rebel officer in my charge.

HALCOM. Thank you, General. But your communication would, doubtless, have come too late. But for my escape, I should have been executed two hours ago.

SHERMAN. Your escapes are marvelous. By the way, I have orders from Washington to advance you to the first vacancy among the corps commanders.

HALCOM. (_Dropping his head._) I had not expected that.

SHERMAN. Why not? In this army, sir, the best man wins.

HALCOM. I am a native and citizen of the south.

SHERMAN. There are no lines for loyalty in this country.

HALCOM. I am indebted to you for this.

SHERMAN. You are indebted to your own right arm, sir.

HALCOM. I have been but a simple soldier, no more entitled to advancement than the private who takes the brunt of the fight in the first line.

SHERMAN. Halcom, some men are born to command—to lead a forlorn hope—

HALCOM. Which I never have.

SHERMAN. Indeed! When at Lookout Mountain the storm of rebel shot had melted the first line, and the reserves were already wavering, and you seized and dared them to follow their flag, rallying the broken ranks to that wild charge that swept the rebel army from its entrenchments among the clouds, it was a glory beside which the command of this army pales into insignificance!

HALCOM. Then the soldier shares equally with his commander! (_Watches out R._)

SHERMAN. But you have not told me of this marvelous escape.

HALCOM. Ask me of something I cannot comprehend, and you have all I can give.

SHERMAN. It often acts like that.

HALCOM. How?

SHERMAN. Simple as any other phase of life. A storm at night. A handsome cavalier, unjustly condemned, awaiting execution. A lovely maiden hovers near. She drugs the guard, and sets the prisoner free. Bewildered by the ecstasy of love in such a moment of excitement, both are lost in its wild delirium. They wake to an utter incomprehensibility of all that has passed.

HALCOM. General, I am content if such chafing pleases you. But I am weighted with an anxiety that will drive me mad. When I can know the heroic girl is safe, who perhaps has sacrificed her life to save mine, I can forget that I am a coward, and unfit to live! (_Crosses over to L._)

SHERMAN. Ah! I am getting interested in this case. Who is this woman? What do you fear? Where is she? I can hardly imagine a situation in this country or in either army, that can be dangerous to a woman!

HALCOM. No danger to a woman? They killed my mother when she was helpless, and, with my sister, burned her in her own home.

SHERMAN. Such men are devils!

HALCOM. And so am I! Can you trace the maniac through Nashville, Chickamauga, and over Lookout Mountain, to the banks of this river, and not guess at the origin of the hell that is so fast consuming my life?

SHERMAN. Treat it calmly, Halcom. It is something that can never be mended. Leave the past to take care of itself.

HALCOM. There are fires that refuse to be quenched. No one has struggled more manfully than myself to forget this. When I would forget, memory conjures up the scene in the old home! My mother’s helpless struggles with the devils who crushed her innocent life! Of my sister burned alive! My God! How can I forget this?

SHERMAN. Tell me of your capture and escape.

HALCOM. (_Hesitating._) My division was overwhelmed by the whole rebel army. In the desperate struggle, I was left wounded and senseless on the field of battle. I was discovered by my old enemy and conveyed to an old hut on the banks of the Chattahoochee. After a parley with Hood and others, I was tried by a drum-head court-martial for treason to my native state, and sentenced to die fifteen minutes later. I was remanded to the hut to await the preparations for my execution. I could see no chance for escape, for Brightly had the details of my execution at his own command. The rifles were already loading that were to send me to eternity. I had sunk on my knees for the last prayer, when a tapping on the logs outside, in rear of the hut, attracted my attention. I hastened to listen. It was too dark to see. But through the crevices between the logs, I learned that the little rebel owl who had escaped _your_ bullet, because she was not a man, had come to effect my escape.

SHERMAN. That child? Surely, I was only in jest.

HALCOM. That heroic child had eluded your guard, swam the river at midnight in the violence of that terrible thunder-storm, dragging a log hitched to a rope that led to the friendly shore, that I might escape.

SHERMAN. Impossible!

HALCOM. I refused to save my life at the hazard of hers. She had planned to escape with me. I heard the tramp of the soldiers detailed to take my life. I heard her clambering to the roof of the hut; the orders to drag me out to die; the sentinel try the barred door; the crack of the breaking boards as she was making an opening for my escape; the crash of the axe breaking the door; an order that sent the devils to the roof to prevent my escape; the ring of her pistol as she drove them back to the earth again. The door crashed in, and the devils were upon me; a rope fell at my feet. With almost superhuman strength, I flung them back and gained the roof. A crowd were clambering up the sides to destroy us. I sprang forward to her defence. In an instant, she pushed me clear of the hut, safely into the river.

SHERMAN. _Did you leave her!_

HALCOM. The next flash of lightning revealed her on the roof, with her knife drawn, holding the traitors at bay, that I might escape. I sprang back for the shore. I heard a splash in the water. The next lightning flash revealed her battling the rapids of the river to gain the other shore. A shot from the rebel side, and all was dark again. I sprang after her. Two hours I have frantically searched this bank of the river, without avail. She has perished in the rapids of the river, or by that coward shot from the rebel rifle, and I live like a coward! (_Zina staggers in at R. U. E., as if unconscious of the presence of any one; wounded in the left side of the head, often looking behind to see if she is pursued. She staggers and is about to fall, when she is discovered by Halcom, who springs forward, and catches her in his arms. Sherman tears off his military cloak, and wraps it about her._)

HALCOM. She has fainted.

SHERMAN. And is wounded. (_They revive her._)

ZINA. Please let me stay on this side of the river.

SHERMAN. Let you stay on this side of the river! I will shoot any man who attempts to prevent it! You shall command this army if you like. (_Zina faints again._)

HALCOM. The poor child is dying.

SHERMAN. Not a bit of it. She is too smart to die! Take her to my quarters. Orderly, here! (_Enter Ord. L. U. E.; with Halcom takes her out, L. U. E._) Have my surgeon attend that girl, and tell him if he lets her die, I will hang him an hour after. (_Exit Ord. L._) I am the biggest ass in the service. If I ever abuse a woman again, I hope I may be shot by an idiot! (_Exit L. Enter Barney and Hez. L. U. E._)

BARNEY. Now whin I would be arrestin’ a blackguard like that, don’t you be a botherin’ me.

HEZEKIAH. Now you git out. I guess it was jest about as cheap for him ter git away, as it would be for you to get a collapse in your real estate. (_Set guns against tree, sit down and wipe perspiration, &c._)

BARNEY. Now look in these two eyes of me. Didn’t ye be kickin’ that blackguard whin I would be takin’ him?

HEZEKIAH. I rayther kalkerlate you was on the pint er passin’ in yer chips when I lit on that critter.

BARNEY. Ah ha! I’m nobody, I s’pose. Was I?

HEZEKIAH. I guess that feller was the most astonished piece er meat I ever traveled over. I kalkerlate that when I lit on the other eend of his corperation, he come to the conklusion that he was wrastlin’ with a first-class earthquake.

BARNEY. I don’t care about thim airthquakes. I want none er thim. My reputashin is spit upon.

HEZEKIAH. I reckon I never jumped onter anything in that line er critter that wanted ter go home so bad as he did.

BARNEY. Now look in me two eyes and be talkin’ honest about it, and no braggin’. Didn’t ye be makin’ that blackguard get away when I would arrest him?

HEZEKIAH. Now, Irish, you just spill your gas in some other line er preachin’, er else I’ll let him get your guzzle next time. (_Enter Brightly and rebel soldiers, R. U. E., stealthily, seize the guns and cover both._)

BARNEY. Now whin I arrest a blackguard again, don’t you be botherin’ me.

BRIGHTLY. Throw up your hands! (_Points gun at them._)

BAR. (_Turning in surprise._) Stop that! That gun is loaded.

HEZEKIAH. (_Throws off coat._) If I don’t make him drop that gun. (_Turns and meets gun—subsides._)

BRIGHTLY. Surrender, or I’ll kill you like a dog.

HEZEKIAH. Don’t care ef I dew.

BRIGHTLY., (_pointing R. U. E._) Step into line there. (_Both comply._)

HEZEKIAH. Say? Got eny terbacker in yer trowsis?

BRIGHTLY. Shut your mouth and march now, or I will see what virtue there is in this gun.

HEZEKIAH. (_March off R. U. E._) Don’t care if I dew.