Harrisofi Robertson
 
 RED BLOOD AND BLUE
 
 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 BY 
 
 HARRISON ROBERTSON 
 
 AUTHOR OF "HOW THE DERBY WAS WON 
 "IF I WERE A MAN," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 1900
 
 Copyright, 1900 
 JY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 rights reserved 
 
 UNIVERSITY PRESS JOHN WILSOIf 
 AND SON CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 i 
 
 THE electric whir of fifty wings ; the brown 
 covey's level flight, as a charge of canister- 
 shot ; a flash from a quickly raised gun, and 
 then a tanned, sturdily-stepping boy, after 
 having noted where the flushed quails had 
 sunk again into the yellow sedge, made his 
 way to his spoil, which, with one last tremor, 
 was lying on the grass. 
 
 The boy picked up the bird, holding it in his 
 palm and inspecting its plump beauty, the 
 gleam of the hunter in his eyes. 
 
 " Hello, Andrew ! What luck ? " 
 
 Arthur Feme, a lad of Andrew's own age, 
 which was not more than fourteen, pulled up 
 his horse as he was galloping across the fields, 
 and thus accosted the young sportsman. 
 
 Andrew looked up with a frank nod. 
 
 " Not what I expected," he answered. " I 
 blazed bang into the covey, and I thought I 'd 
 bring down more 'n one."
 
 2 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " I reckon the birds are satisfied, if you 're 
 not all except that one you have there. 
 Poor little fellow ! It seems a shame to kill 
 them so, doesn't it?" 
 
 There was about young Feme the easy air 
 of one who fell naturally into the confidence 
 of those with whom he talked, anticipating 
 and agreeing with them before they expressed 
 themselves. It was a winning manner, espe- 
 cially with those who, as in this instance, were 
 classed as his social inferiors. 
 
 Andrew Outcault gazed at the handsome 
 figure on the horse in silence for a second, as 
 if he did not fully comprehend. Then the 
 smile that lit his eyes parted his ample lips 
 and showed the ends of his big, white teeth. 
 
 " What were they put here for if it was n't 
 to be killed ? " was his response. He turned 
 over the dead bird in his hand and eyed it 
 again. " And I reckon this one ought to be 
 the best satisfied one in the lot. He won't 
 have to scratch for a livin' and starve to death 
 when the big snow comes. Fact, he '11 never 
 know what snow is ; he 's a this year's bird." 
 
 " How do you know that ? " 
 
 " Look. Can't you see? " holding up the 
 young cock for Arthur's examination.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 3 
 
 Arthur bent over the quail. 
 
 " Why, how can you tell 
 
 But he did not finish his question. He drew 
 back, raising himself erect in the saddle and 
 turning away his paling face. 
 
 " I don't want to look at it," he said authori- 
 tatively. " Put it in your bag. Don't you see 
 there is blood on it ? " 
 
 On the prettily marked head of the bird 
 a crimson bead had welled from the puncture 
 of a shot. Andrew's eyes fell to the quail and 
 then lifted again, widening, to Arthur. 
 
 " Of course there is blood ! " astonished that 
 it should provoke any comment, and recogniz- 
 ing that he had somehow been placed on the 
 defensive. "I shot him I shot him fair 
 and square, on the wing. I did n't trap him, 
 or drive him through wet weeds into a net. I 
 don't hunt that way." 
 
 Andrew was defending himself the more 
 aggressively because he did not understand 
 what was the accusation against him. With 
 him the blood of his quarry was only the badge 
 of his victory. His scant experience had not 
 yet taught him that there were people in the 
 world who sickened at the mere sight of blood. 
 
 " Oh, I did n't mean that ! " Arthur replied,
 
 4 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 leaning over his horse's neck and carefully 
 adjusting a wisp of the mane which had blown 
 to the wrong side. " I just never could bear 
 to see blood ; that 's all." 
 
 The other boy was speechless for a moment. 
 Then his mouth twitched and he was on the 
 point of breaking into loud laughter. But 
 something checked him perhaps the instinct 
 of the true gentleman in the heart of this son 
 of the soil and he simply commented: 
 
 " Well, that is funny ! " 
 
 " Father says I '11 outgrow it," Arthur added 
 cheerfully. " I certainly do hope so. It 's 
 awfully uncomfortable." Then, gathering up 
 the reins, " Have you seen anything of Lee 
 Torrance over this way ? " 
 
 " No ; I ain't seen him this evenin'." 
 
 Young Feme rode off toward " The Mounds," 
 the Torrances' home, whose chimneys could be 
 seen above the trees a mile to the east ; while 
 Andrew, leaning against his gun, looked after 
 the receding horseman. 
 
 " He 's a dadburned good rider, anyhow," 
 was the boy's tribute, " if he is skeered of 
 a little blood." After which he proceeded to 
 re-charge with powder, wad, and shot his old 
 muzzle-loading gun.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 5 
 
 Andrew knew. Arthur Feme was a good 
 rider ; and as he trotted briskly across the 
 fields the slender stalks of the broom-sedge 
 through which he rode did not give themselves 
 more gracefully to the motion of the wind 
 than he to the motion of his horse. He was 
 an uncommonly handsome boy. His flesh had 
 much of the whiteness and the firmness of the 
 young hickory under the bark. Already there 
 was in his development the assurance of a 
 comely and strong manhood that would be 
 conspicuous even among the products of this 
 luxuriant Tennessee limestone. His hair, 
 dusky and thick, and his eyes, soft and dark, 
 accentuated the clarity of his skin. His face 
 was faultless in its lines, unless it might be 
 criticised as a trifle too narrow in its lower 
 part for the imposing breadth of forehead. 
 The nose was straight, with thin, sensitive 
 nostrils, and the expression, when animated, 
 was full of brilliant change ; when in repose, 
 thoughtful, often to sadness. He was in ap- 
 pearance certainly the worthy representative 
 of a family that, exclusive of the Torrances, 
 was esteemed as the first, in position and 
 lineage, in a community which, had it always 
 been impressed as much by the virtues of
 
 6 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 pedigreed hogs as of pedigreed humans, would 
 have fared better materially. 
 
 Andrew Outcault, having loaded his gun, 
 swung it across his knees as he sat upon a 
 stump, and idly kicking his heel against its 
 side, whistled " Dandy Jim o' Caroline " and 
 followed with his eyes Arthur Feme's prog- 
 ress to The Mounds. 
 
 The long-sought covey of quails seemed 
 now forgotten. Andrew's back was turned 
 upon it. His puckered face was set to The 
 Mounds, forbidden territory to an Outcault, 
 which Arthur Feme entered almost daily with 
 as much freedom as if he had been a son of 
 James York Torrance himself. Lee Torrance 
 was the son of James York Torrance, and 
 Arthur Feme was Lee's friend, but it was not 
 of Lee, nor of even James York Torrance, that 
 Andrew Outcault thought when he thought of 
 The Mounds ; and he felt in his riotous young 
 heart that it was not of these that such as 
 Arthur Feme thought when they went, as he 
 so often saw them go, to the Torrance planta- 
 tion. For there was the home of Lee's sister 
 and James York Torrance's daughter, Victoria 
 Torrance, who had set aflame in Andrew 
 Outcault the first fierce, secret passion of a
 
 Red Blood and Blue 7 
 
 boy's love, which by day drew his feet and 
 his eyes in one direction, which by night 
 fevered his pillow with longing void and 
 ecstatic dreams, and which stirred within him 
 the awakening forces of desire and awe, feroc- 
 ity and tenderness, mastery and abasement, 
 that have been the lot of man since the 
 breath of life was blown into another sex, 
 and that ever lift boyhood to the stress of 
 manhood, as later they lift manhood to the 
 simplicity of boyhood. 
 
 Such a passion as that of this healthy, 
 plainly-living lad could only be intensified by 
 his knowledge, indefinite and yet oppressive, 
 that she who had inspired it was in a world so 
 far removed from his that he was not even 
 privileged to see her except by chance and at a 
 distance, as he met her on some public high- 
 way, as he gazed at her across the pews at 
 church, or prowled among the thickets near 
 The Mounds to catch a far glimpse of her 
 at door or window, or among the oaks and 
 magnolias in which the house was set. He 
 had no clear conception of the reasons, 
 indeed, his mind was too immature as yet to 
 seek reasons, but he did have some concep- 
 tion of the disparity in which the Torrances
 
 8 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 and the Outcaults were held by those who 
 knew both families, and he realized that as an 
 Outcault the place to which he was popularly 
 assigned in the social scale was hardly above 
 that of the negroes who tilled the Torrances' 
 cotton-fields. 
 
 There is little melody in " Dandy Jim o' 
 Caroline," and there was less as Andrew 
 whistled it, finishing it as Arthur disappeared 
 through the gates of The Mounds. 
 
 Andrew had loosened a slab of the dead 
 stump's bark as he kept time with his heel, and 
 this he doggedly continued kicking until it fell 
 off, after which he jumped to the ground and 
 with a laugh and a "Shoulder arms!" started 
 in the direction in which the quails had flown. 
 For a few steps he marched like a soldier, 
 except that he glanced back once. Then when 
 a platoon of mullein stalks obstructed his 
 advance he clubbed them aside with his gun. 
 That done, his eyes wandered again toward 
 The Mounds, and the gleam of the hunter had 
 gone out of them as they shifted back toward 
 the waiting covey. A couple of kildees, flying 
 by out of range, alighted with their shrill 
 challenge on the banks of the creek a quarter 
 of a mile nearer The Mounds. Ordinarily he
 
 Red Blood and Blue 9 
 
 would not have noticed a kildee while he had 
 a chance for a quail, but now he turned and 
 watched the white and dun birds as they ran 
 over the ground, rocky and bare except for 
 patches of short grass, beyond the farthest 
 fringe of the sedge. He suddenly tossed his 
 gun in air, and catching it as it came down, sang 
 out the old air of the children's kissing game : 
 
 " Fly to the east and fly to the west, 
 And kneel to the one you love the best." 
 
 The kildees had flown to the east, the quails to 
 the west, and Andrew with resolute strides 
 started toward the kildees. 
 
 But he never got a shot at them. The birds 
 were wary, the stalker indifferent, and after 
 they had twice taken wing before he drew 
 in reach they scudded northwest toward the 
 "Dead Sea," instead of east toward The 
 Mounds. Andrew made no pretence of fol- 
 lowing them further, but loitered along the 
 creek that came from the great spring at The 
 Mounds. The spell of October was in the air; 
 the day, with all its out-door freedom, was his 
 own ; and he thrashed aimlessly through the 
 fallen leaves on the bank of the stream ; 
 through the brush and bramble that crowded to
 
 to Red Blood and Blue 
 
 the water's edge ; through the screening withes 
 of the willows; through the soft green grass 
 where the creek spread out, at the foot of 
 the gorge, between undulant, beech-studded 
 meadows; through the gorge itself, whose cool 
 blue rock-walls were draped with velvets of 
 moss and laces of ferns ; but all the time, with 
 his wayward steps, slides, and leaps, inching 
 nearer the source of the brook at The Mounds. 
 At the head of the gorge the water, before 
 plunging down it, eddied aside into a wide, 
 smooth pool, which, under high summer skies, 
 mirrored the fleece of every cloud above and 
 the frond and leaf of every vine and branch 
 with the exquisitely idealizing fidelity with 
 which it revealed the markings of the young 
 bass in its depths. But this afternoon the 
 pool, while still apparently pure, had no longer 
 the transparence of June and July. Sumptu- 
 ously dyed leaves had drifted around its rim 
 and sunk to its bottom, and the shadows of 
 the airy clouds which had flitted across its sur- 
 face in summer as fleeting fancies now seemed 
 to have been caught and held in its very heart 
 as brooding memories, pervading the October 
 water with the same mystic softness that ever 
 pervades the October sunshine.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 1 1 
 
 It may be that something of its spirit 
 momentarily touched the chaotic currents that 
 were coursing through the boy's veins. He 
 threw himself upon the dry leaves by the side 
 of the pool, stirring them rhythmically with his 
 foot, for no manifest purpose except to hear 
 them rustle, and watching one little crimson 
 shallop that had fallen from a maple and lay 
 seemingly becalmed on still water, yet which, 
 sighted by the spear of a cat-tail on the bank, 
 was slowly swinging toward the sluice that 
 shot into the gorge. 
 
 Andrew followed with his gaze the leaf as it 
 circled outward and was caught by the swift 
 race, disappearing over the timbers of a rude 
 fish-trap which he now discovered for the first 
 time. An ejaculation of impatience broke 
 from his throat, and he threw a stone at the 
 trap as he got to his feet and went toward it. 
 " No sneak-fishin' here ! " he exclaimed, as he 
 kicked the trap to pieces and sent it spinning 
 down the stream. After which, with unwitting 
 inconsistency and the zest of the slayer for 
 slaughter's sake, he shot a kingfisher that 
 had swooped down boldly for its dinner. 
 
 When his eyes fell again on the pool the 
 place of the maple leaf had been taken by a
 
 12 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 great green-enamelled magnolia leaf, and his 
 face shone with a new light. There were no 
 magnolia-trees nearer than The Mounds, and 
 he knew that the leaf must have floated thence. 
 He went to the narrowest point of the race, 
 and, standing on rocks that projected from the 
 water, waited until the leaf came swirling 
 down, when he seized it and bore it trium- 
 phantly to the bank. Lying on his back, with 
 the moist leaf cooling his closed eyelids, he 
 dreamed some of those dreams that come to 
 sound-hearted boys, from the days when in 
 skirts they mount stick horses and rout armed 
 legions to the years when the lengthening 
 shadows bring them dreams of only what 
 has been or might have been. For the time 
 the magnolia leaf was to Andrew an argosy 
 of fine and gallant things. The creek, for in- 
 stance, flowed as a moat around the grim walls 
 of a Castle of Evil imprisoning Innocence- 
 and-Beauty-and- High-Degree ; and the leaf was 
 dropped into the water by her own fair hand, 
 which had traced upon it an appeal to chiv- 
 alry and a prayer for deliverance ; and it had 
 come to him in the far greenwood, a poor 
 and simple gentleman, with no retainers but 
 his wits, no fortune but his sword : and fasten-
 
 Red Blood and Blue 13 
 
 ing the leaf of lustrous Lincoln-green in his 
 cockade, with faith Above and consecration to 
 Her he had ridden away to find the walls 
 these errant waters guarded ; and he had fol- 
 lowed the stream toward its source through 
 untracked forests and gruesome fens and 
 mountain fastnesses, braving all manner of 
 perils and overcoming countless foes, until the 
 very water ran red, red, red, and the castle 
 was reached and stormed, and Innocence-and- 
 Beauty-and-High-Degree was borne trium- 
 phantly away, to bind his wounds and adore 
 him evermore. 
 
 He sprang up with a short laugh. It was 
 a laugh at himself, and ended abruptly, after 
 the manner of the snort of a frolicsome colt. 
 He looked about him a little shamefully, as if 
 half-suspecting that he might have been de- 
 tected in his deeds of prowess. Then with 
 another laugh he stuck the magnolia leaf in 
 his hat-band and walked along the creek to 
 a shoal where he knew that the doves, at this 
 hour of the afternoon, were in the habit of 
 flying to drink. 
 
 It had the additional attraction of being very 
 near The Mounds. 
 
 Here, at the edge of the stream, stood an
 
 14 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 ash with a dead top, on which the doves 
 usually alighted to reconnoitre before ventur- 
 ing down to the water. Andrew could see 
 now from where he was a graceful silhouette 
 on the highest point of the ash, but he trudged 
 openly ahead, with no effort to conceal his 
 approach, and before he got within range the 
 bird took flight. Reaching the shoal, a casual 
 glance revealed the presence of no other doves, 
 and he stopped in a clump of bushes to await 
 newcomers. But instead of facing the shoal 
 and the ash, he was soon eying The Mounds, 
 the picket fence enclosing which was hardly a 
 stone's throw distant. 
 
 The house, of brownish-gray brick, was large 
 and square, two and a half stories high, with a 
 roof so flat that it could not be seen over the 
 wooden cornice. The mortar showed dingily 
 that it had once been " pencilled " with lime. 
 The cornice had long ago been painted white ; 
 the outer blinds were yet green ; the great 
 fluted pillars of the porch, which were hollow 
 and had been the hiding places of such treas- 
 ure as the family silver and the family wheat 
 during the Civil War, indicated at close in- 
 spection that they had originally been painted 
 in imitation of marble. About fifty yards to
 
 Red Blood and Blue 15 
 
 one side was the small one-story structure 
 known as " the office." In the rear of the 
 main building, and connected by a plank walk, 
 was the kitchen, flanked by the smoke-house. 
 In front was a spacious park of forest trees, 
 rooted in blue-grass, which was neglected 
 and partially covered with dead leaves. The 
 ground rolled gently to the great " bottom- 
 less" spring, a beautiful pool of cold water 
 that found its outlet in the creek which 
 Andrew had ascended. The spring welled 
 up between two immense hillocks, covered 
 with turf and studded with trees whose size 
 attested the growth of centuries. These 
 mounds, relics of a mysterious prehistoric 
 race, gave the plantation its name. At the 
 far end of the park, gates opened into a tree- 
 lined lane, called Torrance Avenue, whose 
 other extremity was the main street of the 
 little town of Feme Run, a mile or two away. 
 Nature had done much to make The Mounds 
 a beautiful home, but man for many years had 
 done little to aid her. 
 
 Except for the smoke rising from the kitchen, 
 the chant of a negro song, and the lazy plaint 
 of a washboard somewhere near, there were no 
 signs of life about the sleepy place as Andrew
 
 1 6 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 surveyed it, a touch of disappointment sober- 
 ing his usually cheerful face. Then there 
 was the sibilant beat of wings behind him ; 
 and, turning quickly, he discharged bis gun at 
 what he mistook for a dove flying between 
 himself and the sun. But he saw almost 
 instantly that it was not a d9ve. A few 
 loosened feathers floating in the air and the 
 swerve of the bird showed that it had been hit, 
 and as it continued its flight and suddenly 
 dropped in the high-fenced inclosure of The 
 Mounds Andrew realized that he had killed 
 one of James York Torrance's pigeons. His 
 sun-burned face grew a little whiter as he 
 stared at the dead bird on the grass. He stood 
 in awe of James York Torrance. Beyond the 
 distance-compelling reputation of the master 
 of The Mounds, Andrew knew, though he did 
 not understand why, that being an Outcault 
 he was in particular disfavor with James York 
 Torrance. Moreover, it was rumored every- 
 where that James York Torrance prized, above 
 all his worldly possessions, his pigeons ; and 
 an Outcault had shot one of James York 
 Torrance's pigeons! 
 
 The boy's first impulse was to run away, 
 and he did turn as if to flee ; but he had not
 
 Red Blood and Blue 17 
 
 taken more than one step before he whirled 
 and with a sniff of sudden resolution went 
 immediately to the fence between him and 
 The Mounds. It was of cedar pickets, ten 
 feet high, set deep in the ground and close to- 
 gether, sharpened to points at the top. Hold- 
 ing his gun in one hand, Andrew scaled this 
 formidable barrier and dropped to the ground 
 on the other side. He had killed one of James 
 York Torrance's pigeons, but he had mistaken 
 it for a wild dove ; he would not sneak away 
 like a marauder or a coward ; he would carry 
 the dead pigeon to the house and explain, if 
 necessary, to James York Torrance himself, 
 the circumstances of the catastrophe. 
 
 The pigeon had fallen about fifty yards 
 from the house, and Andrew, just as he 
 picked up the bird, was transfixed by the 
 spectacle of two old men coming toward him 
 from around the corner of " the office." One 
 he knew to be no less a personage than James 
 York Torrance, white-haired, cleanly-shaven, 
 martial, yet walking with the uncertain steps 
 of poor eyesight. With one hand he was 
 arranging on his nose his glasses, and with 
 the other he carried, as always, a gold-headed 
 ebony cane. By his side was " Uncle " Bev,
 
 1 8 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 an aged negro, as straight and dignified as his 
 master. 
 
 " Yonder he is, Marse Jeems York," Andrew 
 could hear the negro say ; " an' de young 
 varmint is shootin' our pijins, lak I tole you ! " 
 
 James York Torrance's form seemed to 
 stiffen a little more, and his lips moved, but 
 Andrew could not hear the words that came 
 from them. 
 
 " Yess 'r," Bev replied, " he done kilt one un 
 um already ; he got it in his han' dis minnit 
 he sutny is." 
 
 Andrew stood chilled and motionless. He 
 appeared as much a fixture as the oak by his 
 side. 
 
 " My Ian ' ! Marse Jeems York," Bev next 
 exclaimed, " who you reckon it is ? Hit hit 
 ain't nobody but dat outdacious Outcault boy, 
 da 's who ! " 
 
 They were only a few yards away now, and 
 James York Torrance abruptly halted at these 
 words of Bev's. The pink of apple- blossoms 
 came into his pale cheeks, and he dug his 
 cane into the ground, the hand with which 
 he held it gripping it so tightly that the 
 knuckles stood out bloodlessly white, the 
 stick trembling in his clutch
 
 Red Blood and Blue 19 
 
 " What Outcault ? " he asked, in a voice 
 so low that it was plainly the result of an 
 effort at self-control. " Not the son of Jerry 
 Outcault ? " 
 
 " Yess 'r ; hit 's des dat ve'y brat ! " 
 
 James York Torrance's gentle blue eyes, now 
 piercingly set and fiercely magnified behind his 
 powerful glasses, were fixed upon Andrew with 
 what seemed to the boy a merciless glare. 
 Then the cane of the old man was given an- 
 other shove further into the sod and his dry 
 lips contracted as if shrivelled by heat. 
 
 " Come here, sir ! " he ordered, his usually 
 sweet tones husky with repressed emotion. 
 
 Andrew felt powerless to stir. There was 
 something so ominous in the lean, majestic 
 person of the speaker, in its stilled passion, 
 that the boy was cowed as he had never been 
 in all his life. 
 
 " Come here, sir ! Do you not hear me ? " 
 
 Andrew continued to stare helplessly at the 
 disks of the ogreish glasses. Then the spell 
 was broken by the lilt of a young voice 
 somewhere near, and like a flash Andrew 
 turned his face from that of the man to the 
 figure of a girl skipping and singing toward 
 them over the lawn. It was a repetition by
 
 20 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 youth and femininity of the beautiful old man. 
 She was not more than ten years old. She 
 had her father's air of distinction and blood. 
 She had his slender form, his flat back, his 
 long legs, with the elasticity and sureness of 
 motion which had been his before his sight had 
 begun to fail. She had his firm lips, full but 
 not thick, with a carnation and dew all their 
 own. She had his solid, symmetrical chin, a 
 fundamental part and not a superfluous append- 
 age of the clear-cut, sensitive face which rose 
 from it as a base to the smooth brow. She 
 had hair that was his in luxuriance, but 
 was the October woods' in its shadows and 
 tints. She had eyes that were his only in 
 their gentleness and fire, but in their color 
 were deeper, and in their colors were no- 
 body's whose eyes could be described one 
 hour with words that would describe them 
 the next. But she had a voice that was not 
 her father's a voice that had made irresist- 
 ible many Torrance women, and which genera- 
 tion after generation had been the most 
 unmistakable and purely preserved heritage 
 of the Torrance family. 
 
 As she came near, her laughing eyes looking 
 in curosity from Andrew to her father, her
 
 Red Blood and Blue 21 
 
 quick steps were suddenly checked, and the 
 shadow of a cloud flitted over her face. It 
 was not the first time she had seen that rigid- 
 ity of his body, that blaze in the eyes, those 
 apple-blossoms upon the wintry cheeks. She 
 slipped to his side silently, and with a motion 
 that was tenderly maternal, laid her hand 
 upon his as it gripped the head of the cane, 
 and raised to him eyes that were solicitously 
 questioning. But he, beyond an almost im- 
 perceptible start as she touched him, betrayed 
 no consciousness of her presence, or of any 
 presence except that of the boy. 
 
 At sight of Victoria Torrance Andrew was 
 no longer motionless and speechless in the pres- 
 ence of her father. Lifting up his face and 
 flinging back his shoulders, as he did some- 
 times in the exuberance of vitality when 
 breasting wind and rain, he walked forward, 
 with the dead pigeon in his hand, and stopping 
 in front of James York Torrance, said, in a voice 
 whose slight agitation was the result more of 
 the preceding than the present moment: 
 
 " I reckon this is your pigeon, sir. I was 
 comin' to tell you how it happened." 
 
 " What are you doing on this place, sir ; and 
 what do you mean by shooting my pigeons ? "
 
 22 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " That 's what I wanted to tell you, sir. I 
 did n't go to do it." 
 
 There was a scoffing grunt from Bev, who 
 was instantly silenced by a stern glance from 
 James York Torrance. 
 
 " Indeed ! " the old gentleman replied to 
 Andrew. " Continue. Let us hear the rest of 
 this remarkable story." 
 
 "I was huntin' doves over there on the 
 creek," Andrew went on. " The pigeon flew 
 between me and the sun and I thought it was 
 a dove. After I shot it I saw that it was n't. 
 It fell over here in the yard, and I climbed the 
 fence and was goin' to take the pigeon to the 
 house and explain to somebody how it was. 
 That 's all. I am very sorry, sir." 
 
 Bev had turned away and the convulsive 
 heaving of his shoulders indicated that he was 
 struggling to keep to himself his keen appre- 
 ciation of the ridiculous. Even the visage of 
 James York Torrance yielded to a faint smile. 
 
 Andrew was quick to note these evidences 
 of incredulity ; his skin flamed, and a belliger- 
 ent light kindled in his eyes. 
 
 " Extraordinary ; quite extraordinary," was 
 James York Torrance's even comment. " But 
 you must see that it does not happen again.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 23 
 
 If you kill any more of my pigeons I shall have 
 to put you in the calaboose, and if I catch you 
 on my place again I shall have you switched by 
 one of the negroes." 
 
 The boy appeared to gain in age and dignity. 
 The flame died out of his face ; his chest slowly 
 broadened; he looked at James York Tor- 
 ranee steadily, with resolute defiance; then he 
 dropped to the ground the dead pigeon which 
 he had been holding in his hand and said, with 
 a deliberation that was beyond his years : 
 
 " I 'm sorry, sir, I took the trouble to try to 
 explain it." 
 
 " You may go now," James York Torrance 
 informed him, without change of tone or man- 
 ner. " Line, put down that axe and come 
 here" this to a strapping young negro who 
 was crossing the lawn, and who obeyed with 
 alacrity, his teeth glistening in a white grin as 
 he approached. " Take this boy, Line," James 
 York Torrance directed, " and put him through 
 the gate." 
 
 Andrew gave one glance at Line and then 
 turned again to Mr. Torrance. 
 
 " I can go very well, sir, without Line, by 
 the way I come." 
 
 The faint smile again showed in the old
 
 24 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 gentleman's eyes as he modified his order to 
 Line. 
 
 " Certainly ; Line, if he prefers it take him 
 and lift him over the fence." 
 
 Andrew now was pale. His gun, which he 
 was holding by the barrel, its stock resting on 
 the ground, he suddenly raised a few inches 
 and set down again firmly. 
 
 " I will go, Mr. Torrance," he declared : " I 
 will go myself; but I won't allow any of your 
 niggers to lay hands on me." 
 
 Line, who with a gurgling laugh deep in his 
 throat had started toward Andrew, paused, his 
 eyes on the gun ; while James York Torrance 
 slightly elevated his voice as he exclaimed : 
 
 " Why, I believe the young scamp is capable 
 of murder ! " 
 
 The girl, her hand still on her father's as it 
 held the cane, took a sudden step forward, 
 while the pink came and went in her fresh 
 young face. 
 
 " Father ! " she protested impulsively. " He 
 is a white boy ! And he is telling the truth ; 
 I am sure he is telling the truth ! " 
 
 Mr. Torrance's eyes fell to his daughter, and 
 they rested on her with smiling admiration and 
 unfathomable love, for the moment apparently
 
 Red Blood and Blue 25 
 
 oblivious of the trespasser. Andrew's eyes, 
 too, turned to Victoria, and their defiance 
 melted into a softness which was very near 
 tears, and which might have been tears if 
 there had not been in them something stronger 
 than mere gratitude. 
 
 He opened his mouth to speak to her, but 
 there was a choking paralysis in his throat, 
 and he wheeled toward the fence over which 
 he had climbed. But he had only gone a 
 few paces when he abruptly returned, walking 
 swiftly, and, picking up the dead pigeon, went 
 up to Victoria Torrance and held it out to her. 
 
 " You will take it," were his words, confident 
 and grateful: "you believed what I said." 
 
 He remembered the moment as long as he 
 lived the radiant face of the child grown 
 deeply grave, the radiant eyes grown rarely 
 sweet, the radiant voice grown very gentle as 
 she simply answered : 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 Andrew now left her as swiftly as he had 
 approached her. He did not look back until, 
 having reached the top of the picket fence, he 
 was about to swing down on the other side. 
 Then he saw father and daughter going slowly 
 toward the house, she carrying the pigeon at
 
 26 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 her side, while the old gentleman walked by 
 her, with one hand caressing her hair falling 
 free to the shoulders, and laughing with a 
 mellow cadence that betrayed no traces of 
 the paroxysm of passion through which he 
 had so recently passed.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 27 
 
 II 
 
 SOMETIMES the periods of a human being's 
 development are as sharply defined as the 
 stratification of the earth's evolution. When 
 Andrew Outcault left The Mounds that after- 
 noon he had ceased to be the boy he had been 
 when he crossed its boundaries a few minutes 
 before. He was not a man yet, but he had 
 stepped upon a plane where the quickening 
 beams of coming manhood broke upon him. 
 He would never again be the lad content to idle 
 away his days in pursuit of the wild things of 
 the woods and water, or in watching for the 
 sight of a girl. As he walked rapidly across 
 the fields from The Mounds the red blood which 
 hastened and steadied his stride surged to his 
 head and rang in his ears with the clear trumpet 
 note of battle. The throb of insurrection was 
 in his heart* the new-born sovereignty of will 
 was in his brain, the tension of combat in sinew 
 and nerve. He would fight. He would fight 
 his way upward. He would fight down obstruc- 
 tions. He would fight to death enemies. No
 
 28 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 one had a right to speak to him with the con- 
 tempt of that autocratic old man at The 
 Mounds. No one should have reason to mis- 
 take such a right. He was hot in the memory 
 of the man's scorn, he was thrilled by the 
 memory of the girl's sweetness ; but the sweet- 
 ness of the one, appealing to all that was best 
 in him, and the scorn of the other, appealing 
 to all that was fiercest, both invoked in him 
 the spirit of battle. In an hour and un- 
 consciously he had stumbled upon the key of 
 nature, which is conflict and the dominance of 
 the victor. 
 
 He walked on, blind to the vast reaches of 
 feathery forest spreading eastward beyond 
 The Mounds and merging into the haze where 
 the mystery of the hills met the mystery of 
 the sky ; the wide fields to the northward, 
 whitening with cotton, sear with ripened corn, 
 vivid with young wheat ; the winding trail of 
 the creek to the northwest, as it made its way 
 through fertile valleys and darkening ravines 
 to the river, which shone here and there be- 
 tween the autumn-dyed foliage ; to the left of 
 the junction of the two streams, the sombre 
 basin of the " Dead Sea," above which even 
 the clouds seemed wraiths of desolation ; to the
 
 Red Blood and Blue 29 
 
 west and southwest, the meadows stretching 
 away to the foot of the barrens ; to the south, 
 the roofs and spires of the little embowered 
 village of Feme Run. Andrew walked on, 
 without turning his head, past the pool where 
 he had caught the magnolia leaf; into the 
 covey of quails without a motion to shoot them 
 as they started up at his feet ; on across the 
 sedge and into the turnpike, on which, a quarter 
 of a mile away, he lived with Cap'n Pow Halli- 
 burton, who in war had served with Forrest's 
 troopers, and who in peace practised law, 
 farmed on a small scale, and made a home for 
 Mrs. Rearden, his widowed sister, with her 
 little daughter, Janet. 
 
 Janet, a large-eyed, serious-faced child, was 
 at the gate, waiting for Andrew as he re- 
 turned. 
 
 "What made you so late, Andrew?" she 
 asked, with slow and grave enunciation. " Did 
 you have good luck? " getting down from her 
 perch and opening the gate for him. 
 
 " Mighty poor luck, Janet," he answered ; 
 " only brought home one bird." 
 
 "Well, that will do for Uncle Pow's break- 
 fast, won't it ? " she said with satisfied assur- 
 ance, rather than interrogatively. " Supper is
 
 30 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 over," she added as she walked by his side 
 toward the house, " but Aunt Dilsey is keep- 
 ing yours warm for you in the stove." 
 
 " I don't want any supper this evenin', 
 Janet," Andrew said a little absently ; " I 
 don't feel hungry a bit." 
 
 Janet's big eyes grew bigger as she looked 
 him over with sudden concern. "Then you must 
 be sick, Andrew," she announced, with an air 
 of finality. " You must come right straight to 
 mamma and let her give you some medicine." 
 
 If it had been anybody but Janet, Andrew 
 would have laughed outright. He turned, to 
 hide his smile, with the pretence of kicking a 
 barrel-hoop from the path as he replied : 
 
 "Now, never you mind, Janet. I am not 
 sick at all. I'm just not hungry." 
 
 "Aunt" Dilsey was even more moved than 
 Janet by Andrew's declination of supper. " I 
 ain't nuvver seed dat happen befo', " she de- 
 clared. "Dat boy he sutny is ailin', er he 
 done been in somebody's apple-tree an' gawge 
 hisse'f, one er t'other. An' we got fried 
 chicken an' batter-cakes fer supper, too, an' I 
 done kep' 'em hot. No, sir ! tain't no apple- 
 tree," she concluded. " He gwiner have a 
 spell er sickness; he nuvver could er-stuff
 
 Red Blood and Blue 31 
 
 hisse'f so full er apples an' sich truck whut 
 he could n't stan' a passel mo' er chicken an' 
 batter-cakes." 
 
 Later, that evening, Andrew took a seat on 
 the steps of the front veranda, a few feet from 
 Cap'n Pow, who was sitting in his usual place, 
 his chair tilted back and his feet hanging over 
 the railing. 
 
 Andrew, slowly swinging his hat between 
 his knees, seemed to study in silence the asters 
 that fringed the gravelled walk before him. As 
 Cap'n Pow glanced at him a second time, the 
 hand which was meditatively descending over 
 Cap'n Pow's beard stopped midway its course 
 and his eyes remained fixed a little curiously 
 upon the boy. 
 
 It was then that Andrew, slapping his hat 
 against his leg, turned abruptly toward Cap'n 
 Pow and asked : 
 
 " Cap'n Pow, how long have I been livin' 
 with you ? " 
 
 Cap'n Pow looked at the lad quizzically a 
 moment before replying. "I reckon your 
 memory don't carry quite that far back, does 
 it, Andrew ? " he asked in a voice which might 
 be described as having in it the same twinkle 
 that his eyes had.
 
 32 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " Well, sir, I remember the time I come, but 
 I don't remember how long ago it was. It 
 was not long before that spring when old 
 Moujik took up with us." Moujik was one of 
 the vagrant dogs that Cap'n Pow was in the 
 habit of giving a home. 
 
 "Let me see," Cap'n Pow reflected, "it 
 must be about five years, Andrew; yes, it will 
 be five years next January." 
 
 " I remember it was when my father went 
 away. Cap'n Pow, why don't people ever say 
 anything to me about my father, unless it 's 
 somethin' bad ? " 
 
 Cap'n Pow looked off down the pike, ap- 
 parently interested in the song a couple of 
 negroes were singing as they sat on the 
 fence. " Don't they ? " he asked, with af- 
 fected indifference. 
 
 " No, sir ; there was Cale Pelton, he 
 throwed it up to me one time that my father 
 had run away to keep from bein' put in the 
 penitentiary." 
 
 "Um ! " Cap'n Pow again turned to Andrew. 
 " That was the time Cale got his eye closed 
 and his shoulder dislocated, was n't it ? " 
 
 " Well, sir, I was n't goin' to let him talk 
 that way. And another time, when I was
 
 Red Blood and Blue 33 
 
 takin' a short cut through The Mounds beech- 
 woods one day, I met old Uncle Bev, and he 
 fired up and said if Mr. James York Torrance 
 ever caught a son of Jerry Outcault on that 
 plantation he would wear him out. Cap'n 
 Pow, what is it Mr. Torrance has against my 
 father?" 
 
 Cap'n Pow, perhaps for the first time since 
 Andrew had known him, seemed at a loss for 
 a prompt reply. He nervously threaded his 
 beard with his fingers for some seconds before 
 he spoke. " Well, Andrew," he finally said 
 more slowly than was his wont and with a new 
 kindness in his tones, " I have always intended 
 to tell you the straight about that when you 
 got old enough for somebody would be bound 
 to tell you the crooked of it sooner or later 
 and I reckon you are old enough now."
 
 34 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 III 
 
 THE story which Cap'n Pow told to Andrew is 
 given here, but not in Cap'n Pow's words, for 
 the elaborations and elisions which he deemed 
 it advisable to make were not altogether such 
 as are necessary to a comprehension of the 
 circumstances by a non-resident of Feme 
 Run or its vicinage. 
 
 Middle Tennessee, according to Cap'n Pow, 
 was well named, not only as being midway 
 between the eastern and western sections of 
 the State, but as being " the very centre of this 
 world and maybe the next." This rolling pla- 
 teau, lying between the alluvial levels of West 
 Tennessee and the mountainous region of East 
 Tennessee, is richly favored by nature, yielding 
 abundantly side by side many of the products 
 of the far South and most of those of the higher 
 latitudes of North America. In one of the 
 first settled counties of this part of the State, a 
 county as yet unbroken by a railroad, was Feme 
 Run. The village had been founded by Hilary 
 Feme, who had been a member of the little
 
 Red Blood and Blue 35 
 
 band of pioneers who, having committed their 
 wives and children to the perils of a long 
 voyage by river, between banks of ambushing 
 savages, had pushed on westward through the 
 still greater perils of an unexplored wilderness 
 to the shores of the Cumberland, where they 
 established, at the point now known as Nash- 
 ville, the nucleus of the civilization that ulti- 
 mately redeemed an empire from barbarism. 
 Feme Run had never done much more than 
 come into the world and nestle contentedly 
 in a pretty nook of it. It was a town of old 
 families and old memories; a town whose 
 grandfathers in the shaded serenity of the 
 cemetery counted for more than its grandsons 
 in the shaded serenity of the streets. For 
 most of the grandsons, when they set forth for 
 themselves, left Feme Run for the cities, or 
 Texas, or the West ; the result being that when 
 the pronouns " she " and " her " were employed 
 in the personification of the village it was with 
 more than ordinary appropriateness. Feme 
 Run was predominantly feminine in population. 
 Young girls with arms around each other 
 strolled up and down its sidewalks, their con- 
 fidences infrequently disturbed by masculine 
 intrusion. They flitted among the flowers of
 
 36 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 the front yards at dusk and chattered on the 
 front porches of evenings, in gardens that 
 were Adamless. They rustled into church 
 every one of them on Sunday, and filled 
 it with their simple finery, delicately fra- 
 grant of orris or of newness, almost submerg- 
 ing from sight the few males that dotted 
 the congregation. In winter, besides the 
 church, at all times their chief resource, they 
 had their reading club and an occasional after- 
 noon tea, while there was always the exhaust- 
 less privilege of spending the night with each 
 other. As they grew older, their slender 
 waists becoming less pliant and their soft 
 voices becoming richer with the burden of 
 unexpended maternity, they took more to 
 church work; they sewed much and exqui- 
 sitely; they made delicious things of fruits 
 and sugar, of eggs, butter, and flour; and 
 they fondled little children with a tenderness 
 beyond the comprehension of most men and 
 some mothers. Lovely in spirit and person, 
 gentle, refined, uncomplaining, there are many 
 such women as those of Feme Run, whose 
 lives, incomplete though they may be, are yet 
 so contented, beneficent, and beautiful that they 
 ought to convince all men of the exaggeration
 
 Red Blood and Blue 37 
 
 of their own self-estimated importance in the 
 plan of existence. 
 
 In a community which lived so much within 
 itself and so much in the past, and whose con 
 stituents, from the freed slaves and the thrift- 
 less " poor whites," up a long way up to 
 the leisurely artisans, tradesmen, and small 
 farmers, and up another long way to the landed 
 aristocracy of the " old families " and once 
 wealthy planters, class distinctions were clearly 
 defined. There was an unquestioning defer- 
 ence of the lower class to the higher, and there 
 was an inoffensive assumption of superiority 
 by the higher in its relations to the lower; 
 though these demarcations were somewhat like 
 fissures in the rocky bed of a stream, rather 
 than like dams, visible, but not dividing, the 
 water. The demarcations of class among 
 these people were ever visible, but they were 
 overflowed by common brotherhood pro- 
 vided each member of a class always kept 
 his place. 
 
 Instead, therefore, of being hostilely envious 
 of such families as the Femes and the Tor- 
 ranees, the people of Torrance County were 
 proud of them : proud of their breeding, their 
 history, their physical distinction, their classical
 
 38 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 culture, their estates. The James York Tor- 
 ranee for whom the county was named had 
 been one of the pioneers who founded "the 
 State of Franklin," and before pushing on 
 to Middle Tennessee had been one of that 
 dauntless band of" Backwater Men " in which 
 every member was a leader and which, riding 
 night and day through the mountain wilds, 
 tireless and irresistible, fell upon and crushed 
 the British at King's Mountain with such 
 splendid valor that it turned back the fast ad- 
 vancing tide of invasion, to recede northward 
 and eastward until it broke and spent itself at 
 the very foot of the throne of the fatuous 
 George. In honor of this heroic exploit of the 
 " Backwater Men," an exploit which illus- 
 trated then, as has been illustrated many a time 
 before and since, the rugged hardihood and 
 above all the individual resourcefulness that 
 make the American alike the best pioneer and 
 the best soldier, the original Torrance plan- 
 tation in Torrance County had been called 
 Backwater. Here the James York Torrances 
 had lived one generation after another until the 
 present representative of the name had sacri- 
 ficed the property to satisfy debts that he had 
 assumed, debts the incurrence of which consti-
 
 Red Blood and Blue 39 
 
 tuted the basis of the story which Cap'n Pow 
 told to Andrew Outcault. 
 
 This James York Torrance was a very 
 "proud" man, though not arrogantly or pat- 
 ronizingly so, and was acutely sensitive in the 
 conception and maintenance of the honor and 
 responsibilities he believed to be his heritage. 
 Reserved almost to the point of austerity, with 
 a never-lapsing dignity that sat well upon his 
 strongly marked face and straight figure, he was 
 yet punctiliously gracious in his bearing to- 
 ward his " inferiors," never failing to speak to 
 them courteously whenever he met them or to 
 exchange the conventionalities of the day with 
 them when he found himself in their presence. 
 But he mingled little with men. Daily he rode, 
 and latterly he drove or was driven by Bev, 
 into the village at the mail hour, and occasion- 
 ally he would make a purchase at some one of 
 the sleepy " stores ; " but beyond this he was 
 seldom seen away from his own home. He had 
 no intimates, not even in his family, except per- 
 haps his daughter Victoria his second wife, 
 Victoria's mother, having died, and the son to 
 whom he had given his name having fallen at 
 Shiloh. The death of James York Torrance, 
 Jr., bore heavily upon the old man. There had
 
 40 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 always been a James York Torrance since the 
 first one, and the present James York Torrance 
 cherished and watched over his younger son, 
 Lee, with a solicitude born more of anxiety 
 that he should live to perpetuate the name than 
 of any excessive fondness for the boy himself. 
 
 The weight of that name seemed to be as 
 well recognized by others as by himself. No 
 one ever called James York Torrance any- 
 thing but James York Torrance. It would 
 have seemed as incongruous to speak of him 
 as Torrance, or James Torrance, or J. Y. Tor- 
 rance, as to speak of or to him as Jim. 
 There was a vague impression among the 
 gossips that the family tree was rooted in 
 royalty, and Andrew Outcault once heard 
 Cap'n Pow explaining to a neighbor how this 
 might be, as it was said that the James York 
 Torrances descended from that Duke of Ber- 
 wick who died at Philippsburg, and through 
 him from James of York, who figures in 
 history as James II. Thereupon Andrew 
 searched fuller details of this illustrious family, 
 in Cap'n Pow's books, and his unsophisticated 
 mind was so shocked at the nature of the 
 connecting link between James of Berwick 
 and James of York that he soon afterwards
 
 Red Blood and Blue 41 
 
 thrashed the shirt from the back of Rody 
 Bumpus, the crack shinny player of Feme 
 Run, for boasting that Victoria Torrance 
 " come down from a king." 
 
 The Civil War left James York Torrance 
 " land-poor." With his slaves gone and no 
 reliable labor to take their place, and with no 
 practical experience as a " manager " himself 
 for Backwater had always been run by an over- 
 seer James York Torrance was for a time 
 in straits to preserve even the appearance 
 of sustaining the traditions of the Torrance 
 family. The place had grown up in weeds, 
 most of the fencing had disappeared, and the 
 fields that once had been white with cotton 
 were now the grazing ground of the Feme 
 Run cows ; while the master who before the 
 war had lived in such lordly ease was now so 
 " reduced in circumstances " that Little Ony 
 Swango, the one man in the neighborhood 
 totally devoid of reverence for ancestral an- 
 tiquity and social station, swore that James 
 York Torrance even Little Ony called him 
 James York Torrance was so run down at 
 the heels and run out at the elbows that he 
 carried the family sugar and coffee from town 
 in his saddle-bags.
 
 42 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 This went on for a year or two, when Jerry 
 Outcault drifted in from nobody knew where 
 and made an arrangement with Mr. Torrance 
 to cultivate part of the Backwater land " on 
 shares." Jerry was a " shifty " sort of man. 
 He had most of the fences rebuilt the first 
 winter, and when he sold his crop he went 
 off North and came back with a lot of " new 
 contraptions " in harrows and ploughs that 
 set the countryside agog. At the end of 
 three years he had, Little Ony Swango ad- 
 mitted, not only " pulled Backwater outn the 
 woods and the weeds," but he had enabled 
 James York Torrance to " do his groceryin' 
 by the barrel stidder the bag." More than 
 that, he seemed to have gained, as no one had 
 ever done before, the confidence of James 
 York Torrance; and when he completed his 
 invention of the wonderful cotton-picker and 
 explained the model to Mr. Torrance, that 
 unworldly old gentleman had so much faith 
 in the inventor that in the end he allowed 
 himself to be drawn into a scheme for organ- 
 izing a great stock company to manufacture 
 the machine. Undoubtedly there would be a 
 fortune in it if it should be a success, and 
 it was not hard for Jerry Outcault to con-
 
 Red Blood and Blue 43 
 
 vince him that it would be a success. It was 
 much harder to overcome the prejudices of 
 James York Torrance against engaging in 
 business, but the memory of his recent adver- 
 sity and the realization of the new order of 
 things in the South were strong aids to Jerry's 
 arguments. " You see, Mr. Torrance," he 
 said, " you don't have to do anything but 
 consent to be president of the company. We 
 got to get up a company because we have n't 
 got the money to start the thing ourselves. 
 Now, the people don't know me, but they do 
 know you. Your word is gospel in this 
 county. All I want, when I go to a man and 
 ask him to subscribe for stock, is to be able 
 to say that you are at the head of the concern, 
 and to print your name on the prospectus. If 
 you are not dead certain that the picker is 
 a good thing the best thing of the century 
 don't you touch it, Mr. Torrance. But you 
 take your time to investigate it before you go 
 into it. That 's all I ask." 
 
 The result was that Jerry Outcault had his 
 way ; the name of James York Torrance went 
 on the prospectus of the Outcault Cotton- 
 Picker Manufacturing Company ; several thou- 
 sand dollars of his money, derived mostly from
 
 44 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 the sale of part of his land, went into the com- 
 pany's treasury ; and on the strength of this 
 a hundred men and women in Torrance County 
 eagerly paid from ten to a thousand dollars 
 for the company's stock, notwithstanding the 
 open scoffs of Little Ony Swango. 
 
 It was not long before Ony was vindicated. 
 The company was duly organized with James 
 York Torrance as nominal President, half a 
 dozen farmers, who could not have explained 
 the difference between stocks and bonds, as 
 " Directors," and J. Outcault, the only man 
 who knew anything about the Outcault Cotton- 
 Picker, as General Manager, Secretary, and 
 Treasurer. Half cash, amounting to about 
 $40,000, was paid in for the stock ; and when 
 the General Manager, Secretary, and Treasurer 
 went North and drew this out to buy the 
 machinery for the plant, and neither he nor 
 the machinery could be traced thereafter, a 
 hundred men and women of Torrance County 
 awoke to the fact that they had been deliber- 
 ately swindled. 
 
 That was a tragedy in the life of James 
 York Torrance such as had never been 
 dreamed of by him or any of his progenitors. 
 Few calamities could have been more horrify-
 
 Red Blood and Blue 45 
 
 ing to him than the realization that he, of all 
 men, had lent his name to the perpetration 
 of so base a fraud upon the people who hon- 
 ored and trusted him. For a time he dis- 
 appeared from public view altogether, and 
 when he was seen again on his trips to the 
 post-office or to his lawyer the change in him 
 was the subject of general remark. His hair 
 was a little whiter; his skin a little paler; 
 his face had lost something of its sensitive 
 mobility and gained more of the sharpness 
 of cut stone ; instead of the courteous salu- 
 tation with which he was wont to greet all, 
 he now looked to neither side, but went his 
 solitary way, his head high, his eyes appar- 
 ently seeing only inwardly and emptily. Oc- 
 casionally when some of the bolder among 
 those who knew him forced their presence 
 upon him and offered a passing commonplace 
 in a tone of sympathy, he would flush pain- 
 fully, his voice would waver in reply, and he 
 would hurry on, sometimes, it was said, with 
 a tear gathering under his glasses. 
 
 The result of his conferences with his 
 lawyer was that by giving Backwater as se- 
 curity he borrowed enough money from Little 
 Ony Swango to return every dollar that the
 
 46 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 stockholders in the cotton-picker company 
 had put up, and this he did, notwithstanding 
 the half-hearted demurrers which a few of 
 them made. He continued to live at Back- 
 water, hoping by its cultivation to extinguish 
 the debt gradually. Perhaps he would have 
 succeeded, at least partially, if Ony had not 
 gone off to Nashville at a time when the fever 
 for speculating in cotton " futures " was at 
 its height in the South. When Ony returned 
 he had to raise a considerable sum of money 
 to pay the cost of making " a gormed fool " of 
 himself, and it was necessary for him to sell 
 his own home or foreclose on Backwater. He 
 foreclosed on Backwater, but it was a losing 
 operation. There was little money in the 
 country those days, and it was disastrous to 
 put up realty at forced sale. It was agreed 
 that Backwater was worth from $75,000 to 
 $100,000, but when it was sold under the 
 hammer to satisfy Ony Swango's claim of 
 $30,000 it brought less than $20,000. Where- 
 upon James York Torrance went immediately 
 to Little Ony (he was called Little Ony be- 
 cause he was the giant of the county) and 
 said with grave courtesy : 
 
 " Mr. Swango, the amount you realized on
 
 Red Blood and Blue 47 
 
 Backwater was but a little over $16,000, I 
 see." 
 
 Little Ony looked at him silently, in his 
 stolid way, before speaking. Then he answered 
 in his sluggish, subterranean voice: " Pre- 
 cise-ly $16,465, Mr. Torrance." 
 
 " I was astounded and distressed that it 
 was no more. I need not assure you, sir, 
 that I shall take it upon myself to liquidate 
 every cent of my indebtedness to you at the 
 earliest opportunity." 
 
 The collarless shirt of Little Ony was as 
 usual open one button at the top. He slowly 
 unfastened the next button, displaying a huge, 
 hairy chest, from whose depths there rumbled 
 up a raucous grunt. 
 
 " You don't owe me nothin', Mr. Torrance," 
 he finally responded. 
 
 " I owe you the difference between $16,465 
 and $30,000, sir; and I shall pay it if I live." 
 
 "You don't owe me nothin', Mr. Torrance. 
 You borrowed some money from me an' I 
 took Backwater as security. It was n't yo' 
 lookout that it did n't bring what it oughter 
 a-brung when I sold it. It would a-brung 
 mo 'n enough if I had waited for a better time 
 to sell. That 's all there is about it."
 
 48 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " It is not all, sir. I have had your money ; 
 the security I gave you proved inadequate. I 
 shall make it up to you just as soon as I can." 
 
 For the first time during the interview the 
 old gentleman's voice ascended in pitch, and 
 he struck his cane into the ground. Little 
 Ony studied him longer than usual before 
 replying; then he said, as if addressing a 
 peevish child: 
 
 " All right, Mr. Torrance. But you ain't 
 goin* to pay any of it until you can pay the 
 whole pile. I don't want to be bothered with 
 no driblets." 
 
 " As you please, sir," stiffening and turning 
 away. " Good-morning, sir." 
 
 Little Ony talked it over with the first man 
 he met. " James York Torrance is got about 
 as much business sense as a chicken," he com- 
 mented, " but he 's a gormed old game chicken, 
 though. Anyhow, I reckon I fixed him by 
 tellin' him he 'd have to pay it in a lump. 
 He ain't got no mo' chanst to make that money 
 than I have to fly to glory with a pair of my 
 ole 'oman's turkey-wing fans." 
 
 When James York Torrance left Backwater 
 he took up his residence at The Mounds, a 
 much smaller place, which had been left to him
 
 Red Blood and Blue 49 
 
 by his second wife in trust for their daughter, 
 Victoria. Here he lived with Victoria, to- 
 gether with the children of his first marriage, 
 Lee and Clara, and his spinster cousin, Miss 
 Juliana Torrance. Here, with Bev as the real 
 executive, he managed the farm, accounting 
 into court a fair rental for Victoria's benefit, 
 and hoarding the remainder of his income, 
 when there was any remainder, for the ultimate 
 payment of Ony Swango. 
 
 Here, more secluded from the world than 
 ever, he sat under the trees and watched his 
 pigeons, while Victoria read to him his paper 
 or his Macaulay, or Bev made his reports and 
 gave his counsel. It was a placid life with his 
 paper and his pigeons, externally at least, 
 though what his meditations were as he sat 
 sometimes for hours motionless and wordless, 
 no one knew. But always the delicate pink 
 came into his face and the knuckles grew 
 white if by any chance Jerry Outcault was 
 mentioned. 
 
 Andrew sat long in silence after he had 
 
 heard the story of his father and James York 
 
 Torrance. His elbows were planted on his 
 
 knees and his jaws rested in his hands as 
 
 4
 
 50 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 he studied the steps beneath him. Once or 
 twice Cap'n Pow, stroking his beard musingly, 
 glanced uncertainly at the boy, recognizing in 
 him some unwonted mood. Suddenly a breeze 
 rustled through the shrubbery, a shutter 
 banged somewhere, and Andrew, jerking him- 
 self upright, turned to Cap'n Pow again. 
 
 " Cap'n Pow," he said, " my father went 
 away and left me by myself, did n't he? " 
 
 " Well, Andrew, he well, yes, yes, he did, 
 Andrew." 
 
 " And you brought me here and took care of 
 me, did n't you?" 
 
 " Why, of course, of course, Andrew. I 
 did n't have any son, and I liked you and your 
 father, too." 
 
 " And you 've give me a home and been 
 good to me all this time, just like you have to 
 old Moujik ! " 
 
 Cap'n Pow laughed his laugh was loud 
 and melodious, but there was something foreign 
 and strained in it now. "You and Moujik!" 
 he exclaimed. " Why, boy, boy, this would 
 have been a terrible lonesome place if it hadn't 
 been for you and Moujik and Janet." 
 
 There were tears in the lad's eyes which 
 Cap'n Pow did not see, and would not have
 
 Red Blood and Blue 51 
 
 seen if he could. " Cap'n Pow," Andrew went 
 on, "you have been better to me than if I were 
 your own son, and I haven't done nothin' 
 much except play and hunt and fish and read 
 them story-books in your library. I 'm big 
 enough to go to work sure enough now, and I 
 want to begin." 
 
 " Work ! Why, you do more work already 
 than any nigger on the place, and you are 
 worth more than any two hands I 've got." 
 
 " I want to go to work regular, Cap'n Pow. 
 I want to work all day, and all spring and sum- 
 mer and fall, till the crops are in ; then if I 'm 
 worth anything more than my board I want to 
 go to the Academy in Feme Run. If you 
 don't need me that way, I want you to hire me 
 out to somebody else." 
 
 Cap'n Pow gave his beard a sudden jerk 
 which must have unrooted some strands of it, 
 and he rose impulsively and went over to 
 Andrew, who, seeing this unusual action of his 
 benefactor, also got up. " My boy ! my boy ! " 
 and Cap'n Pow's normally high voice was now 
 somewhat muffled in his throat, "you're a 
 better farmer now than I am, and this place 
 could spare me a long sight easier than it could 
 you. You shall have all the work you ought
 
 52 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 to do, and that will be twice as much as your 
 board and the Academy will come to. You 
 shall have wages just like any other hand 
 just like any other man for you are a man, 
 Andrew, and I ought to have found it out 
 sooner ; " and with his arm around Andrew's 
 shoulders, the two went into the house.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 53 
 
 IV 
 
 ONE who did not know Andrew as well as 
 Cap'n Pow Halliburton knew him might have 
 taken it for granted that the boy's sudden 
 desire for work would pass, or at least re- 
 lax, with a night's sleep. But, young as he 
 was, neither Andrew's desires nor resolutions 
 passed or relaxed quickly; and at the end of 
 three years he had so persisted in his "fit 
 of industry," as Mrs. Rearden had at first 
 called it, that many a time he had been too 
 busy to hurry off to Feme Run for a new 
 medicine which she had discovered in the 
 newspaper advertisements, and that lady had 
 consequently been threatened many a time 
 with extinction by horrible new diseases which, 
 her reading revealed to her, were preying upon 
 her grievously afflicted body and mind. Cap'n 
 Pow had been right when he said that Andrew 
 was the better farmer; and he had now prac- 
 tically turned over the farm to the boy, the cap- 
 tain himself spending most of his time in Feme
 
 54 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 Run ; mixing with the residents or the country- 
 men in town for the day ; sitting in the court- 
 room, watching the progress of the cases on 
 trial, laughing with the lawyers, twitting the 
 judge, and occasionally when he appeared as 
 attorney in a case himself firing up into such a 
 crackling conflagration of wrath that the idle 
 clerks in the stores hurried across the " square " 
 to see " Cap'n Povv perform ; " and a quarter 
 of an hour later loafing in a law-office or under 
 the trees in front of it, telling funny anecdotes 
 or winning the war for the Confederacy if 
 Forrest had only been in command at Fort 
 Donelson. 
 
 Andrew had faithfully carried out the plan 
 which he had proposed on the night that Cap'n 
 Pow had related to him the story of his father 
 and James York Torrance. With an energy 
 that kept Aunt Dilsey in interjectional ad- 
 miration of his appetite, that impressed itself 
 upon the neighbors and the leisurely black farm- 
 hands he directed, and won the open commen- 
 dation of Little Ony Swango, considered the 
 most progressive man thereabout, Andrew made 
 and harvested Cap'n Pow's crops, and in the late 
 fall and the winter grubbed away doggedly at 
 the Feme Run Academy. Not once in all the
 
 Red Blood and Blue 55 
 
 three years had he gone across the fields, up the 
 spring-branch, toward The Mounds. He saw 
 Victoria Torrance seldom, except at church; 
 but he was a regular attendant of the church 
 in which the Torrances occupied a high-backed 
 pew. The Torrance pew was well forward,. on 
 the central aisle, and Andrew chose his seat 
 in the rear, on one of the side aisles, from 
 which point he could keep his eyes on the 
 head, an ear, a cheek, and occasionally the full 
 profile of Victoria Torrance, without arousing 
 the suspicion of the sharp-eyed congregation. 
 He was free to select his own seat, for Cap'n 
 Pow, accompanied by Janet, always went to 
 another church, in whose choir A Certain Lady 
 helped to sing, in a thin, sweet soprano, 
 " Gently down the stream of time," adapted 
 to the appropriated score of the great Lucia 
 sextet. 
 
 In these three years Andrew had been but 
 once nearer Victoria Torrance than he was 
 when in his back-seat at church. That was 
 the day when, driving with Janet Rearden to 
 Feme Run, they met the old Torrance carriage, 
 and Victoria, leaning through the window, said 
 with the dignity of thirteen and the rare voice 
 of the Torrance women :
 
 56 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " Good-morning, Janet ; good-morning, An- 
 drew." 
 
 Miss Juliana Torrance, by Victoria's side, 
 looked chill disapprobation, and Bev, on the 
 box, sat more rigidly and cracked his whip 
 viciously at a fly on the withers of the off 
 horse. 
 
 Minutes afterwards Janet said quietly, as if 
 she had made a discovery: 
 
 " What a beautiful name Andrew is ! " 
 
 Andrew shook up his horse, cutting off a 
 laugh at its beginning. " It does sound well," 
 he answered. Then he gave a ringing cry to 
 the horse, whistled the whip over the animal's 
 head, and dashed into Feme Run at a speed 
 that brought Janet's hand to her hat and made 
 the chickens take wing in clattering panic from 
 the roadside. 
 
 That was the last time for many months that 
 Victoria Torrance spoke to Andrew when she 
 met him. For it happened that when he next 
 saw Victoria it was at a moment when a young 
 girl of spirit and a budding realization of the 
 responsibilities accompanying a gradual length- 
 ening of her skirts would naturally resent an 
 unexpected invasion by masculine eyes. It 
 was on a Saturday afternoon, a half-holiday,
 
 Red Blood and Blue 57 
 
 when, the negroes having gone off to Feme 
 Run, nobody was left at Cap'n Pow Hallibur- 
 ton's except the Reardens and Andrew. Mrs. 
 Rearden, having just read the advertisements 
 in the last number of the Feme Run Recorder, 
 had suddenly become possessed of a terrifying 
 case of atrophia musculorum lipomatosa, which 
 only Dr. Quobb's Wizard Triturate of Black- 
 bryony would cure, and there was nothing for 
 Andrew to do but go to Feme Run with a 
 dollar to secure a bottle. All the horses had 
 been turned out to pasture, and Andrew chose 
 to walk. There was a short cut from the pike, 
 across the fields, to the head of Torrance 
 Avenue, which Andrew had not taken since 
 he killed James York Torrance's pigeon. He 
 took it this afternoon, whistling gayly until 
 he came within a quarter of a mile of The 
 Mounds. But he did not stop to loiter by the 
 creek. 
 
 It was on this afternoon that Victoria 
 Torrance found herself in full possession of 
 The Mounds. She had read to her father the 
 heaviest editorial columns of his daily paper 
 (forty-eight hours old), had adjusted his black 
 string tie, kissed him maternally, and watched 
 him drive off with Bev; Miss Juliana was in
 
 58 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 her room, with the blinds closed, withdrawn 
 from the waking world until the sun sank low 
 in the west ; Lee was away, as usual, no one 
 knew where ; Clara had gone shopping with 
 Rosalie Kemp, who would have preferred to re- 
 main for a romp with Victoria ; while the ne- 
 groes were all on " Smoke Side," in Feme Run, 
 a part of the public square of which the black 
 population of the county took complete posses- 
 sion on Saturday afternoons, swarming on the 
 pavement and over the curbstones, feasting on 
 melons, cold chicken and gingerbread, cider, 
 and whiskey ; trading, roystering, laughing, 
 posing, strutting, dancing, arguing, preaching, 
 expounding, courting, fighting, and occasionally 
 killing, happy through it all if the sun only 
 shone. 
 
 It was shining now at The Mounds as it 
 shines only in early summer when the rains 
 were yesterday or the day before ; when the 
 skies are unfathomably blue ; when the crisp- 
 ness of the morning is all the day long ; when 
 there is neither dust nor haze, but the vivid 
 greens of uplands and fields are close and 
 clear, and every created thing within one's 
 horizon is vibrant with the common tide of life. 
 Even the dingy walls of the old house at The
 
 Red Blood and Blue 59 
 
 Mounds seemed to brighten youthfully in this 
 tide, as somewhere the drum of a great turkey- 
 cock's wings throbbed through the silence, 
 while the fragrance distilled in the topmost 
 branches of the giant magnolia-trees cleft the 
 air and thrilled the nostrils as the notes of a 
 bugle thrill the ear. 
 
 Victoria Torrance, thirteen, buoyant with 
 health and with the hour, seeking some vent 
 for her vitality this June afternoon, might 
 have been capable of any of the splendid 
 things that have made the world's heroines of 
 history and romance. As it was, such are the 
 limitations that hedge modern mortals, find- 
 ing nothing better to do, she oh, the proud, 
 proud blood of all the long line of James York 
 Torrances ! she rode a bicycle. Victoria 
 Torrance on a bicycle ! It was well, indeed, 
 that James York Torrance was far away, that 
 Clara Torrance was not there to see, that 
 Miss Juliana Torrance's eyes were veiled in 
 slumber. 
 
 Nor was it even a " safety." It was in the 
 days of the old " ordinary," the now obsolete, 
 high-seated device with one very big wheel in 
 front and one very little wheel behind. It 
 was the property of Lee Torrance, and lean-
 
 60 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 ing against the house now, was very con- 
 spicuous in the sight of this girl who for the 
 time had all The Mounds to herself. Victoria 
 driving aimlessly and energetically Clara's cro- 
 quet balls over the lawn, looked at the bicycle, 
 and looked at it again. Soon she dropped the 
 croquet mallet and, laughing quickly with a 
 new thought, hurried to the corner of the 
 house, and made a reconnoissance in the 
 rear ; after which she ran to the big gate 
 and satisfied herself that Torrance Avenue 
 was entirely deserted. No one was visible in 
 any direction, and hastening back to the bi- 
 cycle, she pushed it to a horse-block on the 
 edge of the gravelled drive. From the block, 
 as the drum of the turkey-cock detonated 
 upon her taut senses like rumbling thunder, 
 she swung into the saddle, paling a little and 
 closing her eyes, and in a second tumbling 
 to the ground. She repeated this performance 
 until the palms of her hands were blue-dented 
 from the gravel and her dress bore unmistak- 
 able evidence of the battle. She was oblivi- 
 ous of all now, except her determination to 
 master this thing which Lee rode so easily 
 and so gracefully ; oblivious even of the fact 
 that since she had taken her observation
 
 Red Blood and Blue 61 
 
 there had been sufficient time for Torrance 
 Avenue to fill with half the population of 
 Feme Run. Finally she caught the secret 
 of the pedals and the balance in a moment, 
 and sailed off down the drive, her eyes spark- 
 ling, her hair streaming sailed off as if the 
 world were before her and there were no end 
 to the world, with never a thought that she 
 must some time stop her elating flight and 
 dismount, or how she was to do it. 
 
 That was the vision which burst upon 
 Andrew Outcault as he was vaulting the 
 fence from the fields into Torrance Avenue. 
 But that was not all he saw, for at that 
 moment the automatic gate was swinging 
 open for the phaeton of Rosalie Kemp and 
 Clara Torrance, with Victoria wheeling swiftly 
 toward them. At sight of the phaeton, Vic- 
 toria helplessly threw her weight upon her 
 hands as if she would check a horse, and in 
 an instant she and the bicycle were in a heap 
 upon the ground. Andrew ran forward at 
 once, and as he ran, Rosalie Kemp was already 
 bending over Victoria and hysterically kissing 
 her, while Clara Torrance Miss Torrance, as 
 she preferred to be called, for she was eighteen 
 and launched upon young ladyhood was
 
 62 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 standing, her skirts drawn around her, her 
 forehead wrinkling, her lips puckering with 
 ladylike exclamations of bewilderment and 
 fear. 
 
 Before Andrew could come up, Victoria had 
 disentangled herself from the wreck and got 
 to her feet. She looked from Clara to Rosalie, 
 a smile, partly of humiliation, partly of de- 
 fiance, playing upon her face. Then she took 
 the sobbing Rosalie in her arms and comforted 
 her. 
 
 " Why, Rosalie, I am not hurt the least bit," 
 she said reassuringly, while she glanced with 
 growing bravado at Clara, who was now a statue 
 of shocked dignity. 
 
 Suddenly Rosalie began to laugh, and hold- 
 ing Victoria at arm's length, looked her up 
 and down and gave her a final convulsive em- 
 brace as she cried joyously: 
 
 " Oh, Victoria, are you sure you are not 
 hurt ? I did n't know but you were killed ! " 
 
 Then Miss Clara found speech. " Indeed, 
 Victoria Torrance ! " she exclaimed, " I 'm 
 sure I 'd rather be killed than do such a scan- 
 dalous thing ! What would father, what would 
 everybody say if they knew you had actually 
 ridden a a boy's bicycle? I certainly hope
 
 Red Blood and Blue 63 
 
 for the family's sake, if you have no shame 
 yourself, that nobody else saw you ! " And 
 Miss Clara, with a swish of her skirts that 
 was disdainful and intended to be haughtily 
 regal, turned to leave Victoria, only to con- 
 front Andrew Outcault as he ran up flushed 
 and anxious. " What ! " dropping her voice 
 in her new horror. " What are you doing 
 here ? What do you mean by daring to come 
 here?" 
 
 Victoria, who had been laughing with Rosa- 
 lie and at Clara, straightened up at sight of 
 Andrew. It was a come-and-go of color in her 
 face, but her eyes burned steadily as she stood 
 forth in her tatters. 
 
 " Andrew Outcault," she said, catching her 
 breath, and then going on uncompromis- 
 ingly, "what do you want? Did you did 
 you see ? " 
 
 Andrew had a dim idea that he was in an 
 awkward situation. "I I was crossing over 
 into Torrance Avenue," he answered, "and I 
 thought maybe you might be hurt. I reckon 
 the wheel is sorter stove up, anyhow." He 
 stepped to the wrecked bicycle and picked it 
 up, scrutinizing it with an affectation of sober 
 (Concern.
 
 64 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " I am not hurt," Victoria proclaimed, with 
 the even emphasis of an oracle ; adding, with 
 less exaltation of unconcern : " And you need 
 not mind about the bicycle. Go away ! Go 
 away at once!" 
 
 Clara, her chin in air and her petticoats 
 starchily ejaculatory of her emotion, was 
 already walking toward the house; Victoria, 
 without looking again at Andrew, placed her 
 arm about Rosalie and followed Clara; while 
 Andrew, standing where he was left and hold- 
 ing in view the receding backs of the three girls, 
 was divided by desires to protest indignantly 
 and to laugh. He compromised by whistling 
 very softly; after which, tiptoeing to a tree, 
 he set the bicycle against it and continued his 
 journey down Torrance Avenue to Feme Run. 
 
 For many months afterwards Victoria Tor- 
 rance would not look at Andrew when they 
 met. When Andrew next saw her, soon after 
 this adventure, she was again seated beside Miss 
 Juliana Torrance, this time in an open surrey, 
 and she ignored him as coolly and as obviously 
 as Miss Juliana herself always did, to the evi- 
 dent approval of Bev, whose smile of satisfac- 
 tion wrinkling his cheek Andrew could, see as 
 he looked back.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 65 
 
 Andrew did not smile himself. He walked 
 on very solemnly a quarter of a mile; then, 
 coming to a tree where the shade was dense, 
 he threw himself down on the grass and broke 
 into loud laughter.
 
 66 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 IT was not until a little more than two years 
 later that Andrew made Victoria Torrance 
 speak to him again. 
 
 Andrew was now well in his nineteenth 
 year, while Victoria was fifteen and had already 
 begun to be an interesting subject of village 
 gossip, which had marked out her and Arthur 
 Feme as set apart for each other by present 
 conditions and past genealogical eons. An- 
 drew had put his will and youthful vigor to 
 such good use that he had now about ex- 
 hausted the course at the Feme Run Academy 
 and was in complete charge of affairs at Cap'n 
 Pow Halliburton's farm. It was another Satur- 
 day afternoon, in late September, and the farm 
 work was so well in hand that as Andrew saw 
 his negroes leave for Smoke Side he felt the 
 satisfaction of knowing that their attention 
 was needed by nothing in the fields or the 
 barns. It was very warm, and Andrew struck 
 out through the Kemp woods to a famous 
 swimming pool in the river. Returning about
 
 Red Blood and Blue 67 
 
 five o'clock, he would probably have taken an- 
 other and longer route if he had been aware 
 that Rosalie Kemp had chosen this afternoon 
 for her " cotton-picking picnic." 
 
 Rosalie was a leading spirit of the " younger 
 set," and she did more than any one else to 
 break the normal calm of Feme Run society. 
 The cotton-picking picnic was the latest 
 outcome of her wits and activity. She had 
 issued the invitations, repeated the explana- 
 tions, and provided the lunch, the prizes, and 
 the motive enthusiasm. She was not to blame 
 that the day, which, so late in September, 
 ought to have been pleasant, had degenerated 
 from a beautiful morning into the sultriest of 
 afternoons. And she was making the most 
 of her bad luck when, the wagon having de- 
 posited the great thimble-shaped baskets in 
 the field, and the party, merry with the nov- 
 elty of the lark and with the oddity of their 
 improvised working garbs, had fallen to 
 with infectious jollity, each eager to pick the 
 greatest weight of cotton in the stipulated 
 hour's time and win one of the prizes, only 
 to succumb to the heat one by one and re- 
 tire to the bordering woods. There they were 
 comforting themselves with iced drinks, laugh-
 
 68 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 ing lamentations, and an occasional expostu- 
 latory call to two or three of their number 
 who still remained in the cotton-field, when 
 Andrew stumbled upon them. Their laughter 
 warned him, however, before any of them 
 had noticed him, and he retraced his steps 
 a short distance and turned into the cotton 
 with the intention of cutting across to the 
 road beyond. There was a slight ridge run- 
 ning the length of the field, and once over 
 that he was invisible from the woods where 
 the picnickers were. Just before passing 
 over the ridge he noticed, down the cotton- 
 rows, the backs of two pickers, and after 
 he had crossed and walked on perhaps fifty 
 yards he was stopped short by the appa- 
 rition of Victoria Torrance rising, a few feet 
 in front of him, from a stooping posture 
 among the waist-high stalks, her hands full of 
 the snowy lint. 
 
 And an odd-looking apparition it was. A 
 blue-and-white checked cotton apron was 
 pinned over her shortened skirts, and her 
 face was two-thirds concealed in the depths 
 of a gingham sun-bonnet. It was such a 
 face as Andrew had never seen before. He 
 had seen the beauty of it many times, with
 
 Red Blood and Blue 69 
 
 hungry eyes, but he had never seen the pallor 
 and the weariness of it. The dead whiteness 
 was broken only by the shadowy circles which 
 had come beneath the eyes, and about the 
 young mouth and brow were lines of fatigue 
 and determination which made the girl of 
 fifteen appear more like a worn woman years 
 older. She drew her slender figure very 
 straight as she saw Andrew, and she con- 
 fronted his amazement with challenging si- 
 lence and dilated pupils. 
 
 Andrew for a little after he saw her stood 
 where he had abruptly halted. Then he took 
 a quick step toward her. 
 
 " Why, Miss Victoria," he exclaimed, " what 
 in the world are you doing here? " 
 
 Victoria for a few seconds continued to meet 
 his questioning gaze with no response in ex- 
 pression or speech. Then she turned quietly 
 to a tall cotton-stalk and slowly resumed her 
 work. The flare of her sun-bonnet shut in 
 her face from Andrew, and it seemed as if 
 she did not intend to make him any reply. 
 
 He strode nearer. Under the sun-bonnet 
 there was a faint smile now, which he could 
 not see, but he heard her very distinctly as 
 she finally answered:
 
 yo Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " I am attending a cotton-picking picnic." 
 
 " It is idiotic, that 's what it is, on a day 
 like this ! " emphatically. " Everybody else has 
 quit and gone to the shade. Why don't you ? " 
 
 It appeared as if Victoria would ignore the 
 question. She rifled several cotton-bolls before 
 she spoke. " I am going to win the girls' 
 prize. Mabel Gorman defied me, and she is 
 still picking. That was she you saw over the 
 ridge there." 
 
 " Mabel Gorman be hanged ! Look here, 
 Miss Victoria," with rising impatience, " it 's 
 too hot for anything like this, and you ought n't 
 to do it." 
 
 Victoria moved to the next stalk, but she 
 did not glance toward Andrew, and she did 
 not answer. 
 
 " You ought to quit, Miss Victoria ; you 
 ought to quit right now, and you know it." 
 
 There was an imperiousness in his way of 
 speaking that caused the girl to turn upon 
 him a second time. For a moment there was 
 that in her countenance which seemed to 
 foretell some cutting reply, but the weak smile 
 came again, and again she bent over the cotton 
 row. " It is a little warm," she said, " but it 
 is no warmer for me than for Mabel."
 
 Red Blood and Blue 71 
 
 Andrew had seen the smile, and he was 
 now close enough to see clearly the battle 
 against exhaustion in the pale face. He saw, 
 too, the unsteadiness of her hand as it again 
 sought the bursting bolls, and he caught it 
 almost roughly in his own. 
 " You must not do this any longer," he ordered. 
 
 She gave a low cry of surprise and resent- 
 ment, springing erect, and, as she snatched 
 her hand away, facing him with flashing eyes. 
 
 " You ! " with an intense expression of anger 
 and authority in the one word. " What do 
 you mean ? " 
 
 " That you can't stand this," Andrew an- 
 swered, with no wavering in his voice or 
 manner ; " that you must quit it at once. You 
 are sick already. Your hand is as cold as a 
 corpse's and you have the same look I saw one 
 time on a man two minutes before he was 
 prostrated by heat." 
 
 Andrew did not draw much upon his imagi- 
 nation. Victoria, as she stood defiantly before 
 him, certainly looked ill. There was strength 
 of will left, but it was plain that there was 
 little strength of body remaining. The heat 
 was humid and stifling. It seemed to steam 
 from the bare soil, to wilt the stilled forest,
 
 72 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 to well from the surcharged thunderheads, to 
 smother out from under the low dome of the 
 oily heavens every breath of oxygen. Andrew 
 waited for Victoria to speak again, but before 
 she did Arthur Feme, smiling and tanning 
 himself with a palm-leaf, came over the ridge. 
 
 " It 's the biggest fan in the crowd, Miss 
 Victoria, and I 've captured it and brought it 
 out to you. How are you, Andrew ? But 
 Miss Rosalie said I must bring you back 
 immediately, Miss Victoria." 
 
 He was speaking as he approached, and as 
 he came up and stopped by Victoria's side he 
 added, a little solicitously : " And you do look 
 tired, too." He bent towards her and, with 
 that deferential manner which he showed to 
 all women, began fanning her gently as he 
 talked. 
 
 Outcault's face hardened with an instantly 
 formed purpose. He had been watching Vic- 
 toria closely, and he not only noted the new 
 tremor in her voice, but he saw the increasing 
 evidence of distress in the flagging figure. He 
 went directly up to her. 
 
 " Miss Torrance is more affected by the heat 
 than she is aware of," he said firmly. " You 
 must take her to the shade at once, Mr. Feme."
 
 Red Blood and Blue 73 
 
 Feme, with a puzzled look, glanced from 
 one to the other. " Certainly," he agreed, his 
 eyes upon the girl, "if Miss Torrance will 
 come with me." 
 
 She made a final rally and laughed faintly in 
 Outcault's face. "This is ridiculous, Andrew 
 Outcault," she said, almost as faintly. "Go 
 away, both of you," she added with an effort 
 at levity ; " you interfere with my work." 
 
 " If Mr. Feme won't take you, then I will." 
 Outcault spoke as if he were merely announc- 
 ing the day of the month. 
 
 Victoria's eyes opened a little wider; she 
 looked at him with calm incredulity for a 
 moment; and then she said, in a tone in 
 which there was no levity now : 
 
 " You you are impertinent." 
 
 Feme took an impetuous step toward Out- 
 cault. "Look here, Andrew, what's the matter 
 with you?" he demanded, beginning to resent 
 the situation and Outcault's assumption of 
 control over it. 
 
 Outcault gave no heed to the demand. His 
 attention was all for Victoria. Hardly had 
 she spoken last when her eyelids quivered 
 and drooped, and the slender form perceptibly 
 faltered. Before Feme fairly realized what
 
 74 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 was taking place, Outcault had Victoria in his 
 arras and was holding her as if she were a 
 sleeping baby. 
 
 Feme became almost as pale as Victoria. 
 He sprang forward with a low exclamation of 
 anxiety. " What is it ? Give her to me ! Give 
 her to me ! " 
 
 Outcault did not even look at him. 
 
 Outcault had started with Victoria toward 
 the woods, but suddenly turned and measured 
 the distance across the field to the Kemp 
 farmhouse, whose roof and well-sweep were 
 visible in a clump of trees not more than a 
 furlong away. It was not much farther than 
 the woods where the picnickers were, and 
 Outcault walked swiftly toward it. 
 
 " What are you doing ? Where are you 
 going ? " Feme panted, hurrying to Outcault's 
 side. " She came with me here to-day ; she is 
 under my protection. Give her to me, I tell 
 you ! " 
 
 " Then why did n't you protect her ? " Out- 
 cault answered curtly. " Get out of the way. 
 If you want to do something for her, go ahead 
 there and let down that fence." 
 
 Feme flushed hotly ; but he was helpless 
 now. He kept step with Outcault a few paces
 
 Red Blood and Blue 75 
 
 more, then he hastened on in advance to clear 
 the way by letting down a panel of the rail 
 fence that inclosed the field. 
 
 Outcault, walking through and over the 
 cotton stalks, crushed them down as if they 
 had been so much dead grass. He felt that 
 he would have walked over them thus if they 
 had been phalanxes of armed opponents, such 
 was the pulse that was now in his heart, the 
 power that was in his sinews. Thus he 
 pushed forward, until, his eyes resting for 
 a little on the relaxed lines of the tender 
 mouth, on the delicate tracery of the fallen 
 lashes against the colorless cheeks, he held the 
 still form higher, that even the tallest cotton 
 might not brush it, and picking his footing 
 watchfully, he went on with greater care, but 
 no less rapidly. He quickly passed out of the 
 field, down the road, and through the Kemp 
 gate, finding Mrs. Kemp sitting in the wide 
 hall. That sensible woman, after her first 
 flutter of alarm, directed Outcault to lay Vic- 
 toria on the wicker lounge in the big room 
 adjoining the hall, after which she ordered 
 Outcault and Feme out and closed the door 
 on them. Outcault seated himself against 
 one of the portico pillars and waited, while
 
 j6 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 Feme paced impatiently to and fro on the 
 lawn, neither speaking and neither looking at 
 the other. 
 
 It was not long before Mrs. Kemp came 
 out, smiling. " I told you there would be no 
 use going for the doctor," she said, addressing 
 Outcault. " It was only a little fainting spell, 
 from the heat and over-exertion. She is her- 
 self again now, and will soon be all right." 
 
 After proffers of all sorts of assistance had 
 been declined by Mrs. Kemp, the two young 
 men left. They walked together in silence 
 up the road until they reached the panel of the 
 fence which Feme had let down. Outcault 
 began replacing this, and Feme helped him. 
 When the last rail was laid Feme confronted 
 Outcault and said in a voice restrained in 
 modulation, but keyed with excitement : 
 
 " Andrew Outcault, your conduct to Miss 
 Torrance this afternoon was presumptuous and 
 rude. It was enough in itself to make her ill, 
 and you must answer to me for it." 
 
 Outcault's response was instantaneous and 
 measured. " I '11 answer to you for anything 
 you like, but not here. And you," in some- 
 thing of the tone in which he had ordered 
 Feme to let down the fence, "go and tell
 
 Red Blood and Blue 77 
 
 Miss Rosalie that Miss Victoria is at the 
 house. Better just say that she got tired and 
 you came over with her, without mentioning 
 me or the fainting, I reckon. No use setting 
 that crowd to gabbling. But you know how 
 to manage all that." He turned into the road, 
 and then, pausing, faced Feme again. " As 
 to answering to you, whatever you may choose 
 to mean by that, I shall be at home any time 
 after seven o'clock to-day, or I shall be at 
 Swango's Gap at ten o'clock to-morrow morn- 
 ing, or I shall be anywhere else at any time 
 you please." 
 
 " Swango's Gap at ten to-morrow will suit 
 me," said Feme decisively. 
 
 " It will suit me." 
 
 And Outcault continued up the road, while 
 Feme went back across the cotton-field.
 
 78 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 VI 
 
 SWANGO'S Gap was a nick in the limestone 
 ledge which walled one side of the river. 
 Through it Torrance Creek, skirting the south- 
 western border of the Dead Sea, made its 
 junction with the river; and here the little 
 triangle of rock, vine, and stunted tree, edged 
 on two sides by creek and river and on the 
 greater part of the third by the dark pool of 
 the Dead Sea, was as wild and secluded a spot 
 as was anywhere unredeemed from the heart 
 of the wilderness. One could reach it with 
 difficulty by picking his footing along the 
 ledge that banked the river, while it was more 
 accessible by way of the rocky neck between 
 the Dead Sea and the creek ; but few were 
 the human feet that ever disturbed its solitude. 
 The ignorant and superstitious held the place 
 in uncanny awe, and by the more intelligent, 
 even by those as thrifty as its owner, Little 
 Oriy Swango, it was considered worthless for 
 any practical purpose.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 79 
 
 To this rendezvous Arthur Feme, turned 
 his horse next morning a little after nine 
 o'clock. Feme had not had a good night. 
 He showed it in a trifling fulness beneath 
 the eyes and in the edge of irritability fraying 
 his voice as he gave his horse the word of 
 command. He was far from satisfied with the 
 part he was to play to-day, and he was so far 
 from satisfied with the part he had played the 
 preceding afternoon that the memory of it 
 was as the twisting of a thorn in his nerves. 
 Feme's nervous endowment was both large 
 and fine, marking him for acute pleasure or 
 acute pain, and destining him to get most 
 and to miss most from the life about him. 
 With the ardor and ideality of such a na- 
 ture he believed himself in love with Victo- 
 ria Torrance. It may be doubted if he was 
 in love with the real Victoria Torrance, for 
 it may be doubted whether, though know- 
 ing her nearly all his life, he knew the real 
 Victoria Torrance. Feme knew Victoria as 
 he knew his dreams of woman and love. 
 He knew her as the embodiment of those 
 dreams, vital with the warmth and grace of 
 physical beauty, vivid with the play, temper- 
 amental or superficial, of the varying mani-
 
 8o Red Blood and Blue 
 
 festations of a rare spirit, and softened and 
 ennobled by that depth and strength and sweet- 
 ness of the heart which for him were compre- 
 hended in " womanhood." To her Feme's at- 
 titude was necessarily one of bared head and 
 bended knee. He gave to her all that there 
 was in him to give a loyalty that was unre- 
 served, a devotion that was engrossing, a pas- 
 sion that was inexorable, and a reverence that 
 was at once humbling and uplifting. As yet, 
 restrained by the realization of his youth and 
 by the conviction of his unworthiness, he had 
 spoken no word of love to her; but he lived, 
 if he did not speak, his love for her ; and all 
 the world of Feme Run understood and ap- 
 proved. It was agreed by that world that 
 Victoria Torrance and Arthur Feme were 
 literally " born " for each other. ^ 
 
 When on the preceding afternoon Feme had 
 seen Victoria in the arms of Andrew Outcault 
 it had seemed almost like a sacrilege ; but 
 more potent for Feme's distress than any 
 sacrilege was the instinctive resentment that 
 raged within him at sight of Victoria in any 
 other man's arms, a rage that was inten- 
 sified, in the situation in which he had found 
 himself, by the knowledge that he had no real
 
 Red Blood and Blue 81 
 
 right to interfere and that he was helpless to 
 do more than he had done in not only sub- 
 mitting to, but in aiding, the action of Out- 
 cault. Moreover, his merciless mental ferment 
 had been further aggravated by the fact that 
 subsequent reflection failed to justify his pro- 
 posal to hold Outcault to personal account- 
 ability for the course he had taken in the 
 matter. Feme now understood that he had 
 no warrant for such a purpose, aside from 
 perhaps a strained interpretation of a pro- 
 vincial conventionalism ; and that even if he 
 had, he would play but a sorry part in pick- 
 ing a quarrel that could only set tongues to 
 wagging in gossip which would in all prob- 
 ability involve the girl whose protection from 
 such desecration must be paramount with 
 him. 
 
 The sultriness of the preceding day had 
 passed away with the night, and the air as 
 Feme breathed it was like cool drink to a 
 fevered thirst. Feme rode away from the 
 quiet village, the chimes of the church bells 
 following him, out the smooth turnpike, be- 
 tween fields in which cattle browsed and horses 
 and mules were taking their Sunday holiday ; 
 over the- dirt road that divided stretches of 
 6
 
 82 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 stubble and slopes of bending apple orchards ; 
 and down the faint cow-path that wound be- 
 tween the Dead Sea on the right and the 
 densely shaded gorge on the left along which 
 Torrance Creek slipped and sang. As he 
 entered the triangular approach to Swango's 
 Gap he pulled up his horse at sight of Out- 
 cault prone upon his back, his bed a huge 
 bowlder that absorbed gratefully the morning 
 rays of the mellow sun, threading down through 
 a canopy of vines which shot the golden air 
 with the tang of the wild grape. 
 
 " Good-morning," Feme called out as he 
 dismounted. 
 
 Usually he would have said, " Good-morning, 
 Andrew," and the note of constraint would 
 have been lacking; but the tone was not un- 
 civil, and that it was different from what An- 
 drew Outcault had expected, was shown by 
 a passing glint of surprise in his eyes as he 
 raised himself to a sitting posture. 
 
 " Hello ! " he answered. It was at once a 
 response to Feme's greeting and a non-com- 
 mittal expression of his intention to await 
 Feme's further initiative. 
 
 Feme silently tied his horse to an over- 
 hanging bough and seated himself on the rock
 
 Red Blood and Blue 83 
 
 near Outcault. He flicked, a little nervously, 
 a bit of dust from his leg, saying, without 
 looking up: 
 
 " Well, I see you are on time." 
 
 " Of course," Outcault replied, still waiting. 
 
 Feme looked at Outcault squarely. " I sup- 
 pose I was rather hasty yesterday," he said. 
 " Since thinking it over I have come to the 
 conclusion that I was hardly justified in speak- 
 ing to you as I did." 
 
 It was characteristic of Outcault that he 
 rarely showed any evidence of surprise. He 
 showed none now, but answered in his usual 
 straightforward way : 
 
 "All right, Feme ; I didn't think you were 
 myself." 
 
 " You may have appeared a little too dic- 
 tatorial and brusque in your manner to Miss 
 Torrance, and I may have been remiss in my 
 duty to look after her comfort ; but well, 
 the result proved that there was reason for 
 your insistence ; and if there had not been I 
 well, I am not sure how far I should have had 
 a right to object to your action." 
 
 Outcault looked as if he doubted whether he 
 fully comprehended. " I 'm not sure, either, 
 Feme," he finally said. " In fact, I don't know
 
 84 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 whether any question of ' right ' has anything 
 to do with the case." 
 
 " You must not misunderstand me," Feme 
 quickly rejoined. " I do not mean to say that, 
 whatever the circumstances may have been, I 
 should have had a right to feel any resentment 
 yesterday which any escort of the young lady 
 would not have had a right to feel. I most 
 certainly had no right to assume any attitude 
 toward Miss Torrance which would not have 
 been the right of any other gentleman under 
 whose protection she temporarily was." 
 
 Feme was now speaking unevenly, his agita- 
 tion betraying itself in his rising color as well 
 as in his hesitating pauses. Outcault got up, 
 brushing his clothes in a manner that indicated 
 his disposition to drop the subject. He picked 
 up a stone and threw it into the water, saying 
 as he did so : 
 
 " Well, I reckon there 's not much of a mis- 
 understanding between us." 
 
 Feme also rose. " One thing more," he 
 added : " I regret to have put you to the 
 trouble of keeping this unnecessary appoint- 
 ment. It seems now rather silly of me." 
 
 " Oh ! it does n't. matter about the trouble. 
 Fact is, I don't know but that you have done
 
 Red Blood and Blue 85 
 
 me a good turn. I got here an hour ahead of 
 you this morning and I put in the time explor- 
 ing that pond out there. I believe I 've hit 
 upon a big scheme, if I can get the Dead Sea 
 from Mr. Swango." 
 
 " The Dead Sea ! " and Arthur smiled for the 
 first time during the meeting. " I reckon Little 
 Ony would be glad to give it to you if you 
 would agree to take it off his place." 
 
 " That 's just what I want to do with it." 
 
 Feme laughed rather vacantly as he mounted 
 his horse. " Are you riding ? " he asked. 
 
 " No ; I walked over." 
 
 " Well, good-morning, Outcault." 
 
 " Good-morning, Feme." 
 
 The incidents of the twenty-four hours, 
 notwithstanding Feme's virtual apology, had 
 not left the relations of the two young men 
 unchanged. Before, they had addressed each 
 other as " Andrew " and " Mr. Feme ; " now, 
 it was " Outcault " and " Ferae." 
 
 Outcault spent another hour poking and 
 peering about the shores of the Dead Sea. 
 Then, going a mile out of his way, he turned 
 into the road that took him in front of the 
 Kemp homestead. Discovering far down that 
 road a vehicle which he recognized, he timed
 
 86 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 his steps to meet it at the Kemp gate, which 
 he opened for Mrs. Kemp and the Squire, 
 driving back from church. 
 
 " Has Miss Victoria entirely recovered, Mrs. 
 Kemp ? " Outcault inquired as the buggy passed 
 through. 
 
 " Miss who ? " asked Mrs. Kemp, in a voice 
 whose unwonted formality kindled a merry 
 spark in the Squire's eyes. 
 
 " Miss Victoria," repeated Outcault, his lids 
 lifting a little. 
 
 "Miss Torrance had sufficiently recovered 
 to return to The Mounds last evening," an- 
 swered the formal voice. 
 
 " G'lang there, Solomon," clucked the Squire, 
 shaking the reins over the fat back of the horse. 
 
 " Much obleeged to you, Andy."
 
 Red Blood and Blue 87 
 
 VII 
 
 NEXT afternoon Rosalie Kemp went over to 
 The Mounds in her phaeton and took Victoria 
 Torrance for a drive. Rosalie was usually very 
 happy or very unhappy, and when at either 
 extreme it was her wish to be with Victoria 
 Torrance. This afternoon she was very 
 unhappy. 
 
 Beyond a slight lingering pallor Victoria 
 showed no trace of her illness of the preced- 
 ing Saturday, as the two girls were drawn by 
 old Solomon from The Mounds along the 
 dirt road toward the river. 
 
 Rosalie Kemp, having exclaimed her dis- 
 tress over the misfortunes of Saturday and her 
 delight over Victoria's recovery, had lapsed 
 into one of the pensive silences which generally 
 preceded the commission of her unhappiness 
 to words. 
 
 " What a delicious day ! " she soon sighed. 
 "And what a shame that we could not have 
 had it for the picnic ! "
 
 88 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 "Yes," assented Victoria, reflectively; "but 
 this just you and I and Solomon is nicer 
 than any picnic." 
 
 " You dear ! But oh, Victoria, I 'm heart- 
 broken about the picnic ! To think, after all 
 our preparations, and everybody so taken with 
 the idea, that it should have turned out so 
 miserably ! " 
 
 " But it did n 't turn out so miserably," Vic- 
 toria reassured her. " I 'm certain I had a good 
 time, at first, and the others most of them, 
 at least were more sensible than I was." 
 
 " How could we enjoy it after Arthur Feme 
 came back and told us that you were feeling so 
 bad you had gone to the house, and I was dying 
 to get them all away so I could go to you ? 
 And, oh, Victoria! what do you reckon? I 
 sat by Bessie McLane at church last night and 
 she told me such awful things. She said that 
 Maud Gibbs was circulating it around that her 
 father said that the picnic was just a scheme to 
 get popper's cotton picked for nothing. And, 
 oh, Victoria ! that was n't the worst. What 
 else do you suppose she said ? " 
 
 "Indeed, I haven't the slightest idea, 
 Rosalie ; but I should n 't mind what Maud 
 Gibbs said."
 
 Red Blood and Blue 89 
 
 " Victoria ! " in almost a whisper, " she said 
 that we broke up the picnic because Andrew 
 Outcault, who of course was n't wanted, came, 
 anyway." 
 
 " Oh, Rosalie ! How absurd ! " 
 
 Victoria did seem to mind what Maud 
 Gibbs said. There was an indignant flush on 
 her cheeks now and a flash in her eyes. 
 
 "Of course ! " Rosalie went on. " Why, 
 we did n't even know that Andrew Outcault 
 had been in the neighborhood. Arthur Feme 
 came back and told us that he himself had 
 gone with you to the house; and you know 
 that he would not have told any one about 
 Andrew afterwards. Arthur is a true gentle- 
 man." 
 
 " Yes ; Arthur never told any one about 
 Andrew Outcault," Victoria agreed, looking 
 straight ahead. 
 
 " Then it must have been Andrew himself," 
 Rosalie decreed. " How contemptible ! " 
 
 "Do you think that he would do such a 
 thing? " 
 
 " What could you expect of an Outcault ? " 
 answered Rosalie, scornfully, disturbing Solo- 
 mon's meditations with a sudden lash of the 
 reins. " Why, Victoria, mommer says he actu-
 
 90 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 ally had the impudence to come by and inquire 
 about you yesterday." 
 
 " Indeed ! " There was that in the sharply 
 cut enunciation which reminded Rosalie of 
 Clara Torrance in her haughtiest moments of 
 aristocratic young-ladyhood. 
 
 " Of all the presumption ! " Rosalie echoed. 
 
 Solomon jogged on for several seconds 
 unpursued by the sound of human voices. 
 Then Rosalie gathered up the reins again and 
 suddenly asked : 
 
 " Victoria, tell me, how was it possible 
 how was it that Andrew Outcault dared do 
 what he did, and Arthur Feme with you, too ? " 
 
 Victoria's hands, lying in her lap, closed 
 convulsively, one over the other; then they 
 swooped on the reins held loosely by Rosalie, 
 drew them up and shook them fiercely over 
 the startled Solomon, who actually broke into 
 a gallop. " Let me drive for a while ! " she 
 said impetuously, pulling Solomon down to 
 a trot. "And don't ask me anything about 
 Andrew Outcault! I suppose he did as he 
 did because he is what he is! And don't, 
 don't, don't ever mention the odious affair to 
 me again ! " 
 
 Rosalie looked at her friend with a little
 
 Red Blood and Blue 91 
 
 gasp. Victoria was sitting erect, loosened 
 strands of her hair flaying her temples, her 
 lips firmly set, her eyes burning through un- 
 shed tears. 
 
 " Oh, Victoria, I never will ! " Rosalie sighed, 
 nestling closer ; and a little later : " But isn 't 
 Arthur Feme the handsomest creature you 
 ever saw ? " 
 
 Victoria's face relaxed and she turned to 
 Rosalie with a smile. " Except one," she 
 answered. 
 
 " Who ? " incredulously. 
 
 "Father." 
 
 -Yes but " 
 
 The sentence was for some seconds un- 
 finished, and Victoria's inquiry was in her 
 eyes. 
 
 " But I was not thinking of old gentlemen," 
 Rosalie concluded. 
 
 They were now in sight of the woods through 
 which was the ideal drive of the county, a 
 springy dirt road, known as the Arcade, wind- 
 ing within occasional glimpses of the river on 
 one side and wild uplands on the other, and 
 so overarched with trees that the sun rarely 
 pierced through. Here in the spring miles of 
 dogwood blossoms made a white canopy as if of
 
 92 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 the entrance to some fairy bridal festival, but 
 now squirrels swung across the archway as they 
 sought the hickory-trees for their winter stores, 
 acorns strewed the road, and brown leaves 
 drifted down to cover them from the coming 
 frosts and the slow feet of idlers and lovers. 
 
 Suddenly Rosalie started and laid a hand 
 on Victoria's wrist. " Victoria ! " she cried, 
 " look ! Is n't that Andrew Outcault ? " 
 
 A horseman was coming towards them, three 
 or four hundred yards down the road. 
 
 " I think it is," replied Victoria, eying him 
 steadily. 
 
 " What are you going to do, Victoria ? " under 
 her breath. " Are you going to speak to 
 him ? " 
 
 Victoria, her gaze still on the approaching 
 horseman, answered after an interval of 
 silence : 
 
 "We might avoid him by turning into 
 Wingate's Lane." 
 
 Wingate's Lane was a brier-grown byway 
 that led through weeds and thickets to the 
 abandoned Wingate barrens and the hut of old 
 Dru Wingate, the con jure- worker, the sole 
 human being who lived on the shores of the 
 Dead Sea.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 93 
 
 " But we should miss the Arcade," Rosalie 
 objected, " and," with lowered voice, " we 
 should have to go by old Dru's." 
 
 " I should like to see old Dru's," Victoria 
 replied with a smile. 
 
 " Oh, I should n't ! " closing her eyes so 
 tightly as to pucker her face whimsically. " It 
 makes me creepy to think of it ! " 
 
 " We could turn back before we got to 
 Dru's," laughed Victoria. 
 
 " Yes," agreed Rosalie ; " but, Victoria 
 Torrance, why do you want to avoid Andrew 
 Outcault ? I should think you would be glad 
 of the chance to cut him. / shall never speak 
 to him again." 
 
 They had now reached the mouth of the 
 lane. Victoria seemed to have decided to 
 drive by it, straight on ; but in an instant she 
 so wrenched the reins as to almost bring 
 Solomon to his haunches, and half a minute 
 later, when Andrew Outcault cantered up to 
 the junction of the two roads, the back of 
 a phaeton rapidly wheeling towards Dru 
 Wingate's was all that he saw as he looked 
 up the lane. 
 
 He had recognized the girls long before 
 they turned aside, and he pulled up his horse
 
 94 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 at the mouth of the lane and watched the 
 receding vehicle. 
 
 In Outcault's place Arthur Feme, looking 
 across that forbidden ground, might have 
 sighed a prayer or a poem. But Outcault, with 
 a laugh abruptly ended almost with its first 
 note, slapped the flank of his horse with the 
 palm of his hand, as a boy who rides without 
 a saddle sometimes does, and galloped on his 
 way, humming, in a raw baritone, a line from 
 a Scotch air : 
 
 Ye '11 take the high road and 1 11 take the low road."
 
 Red Blood and Blue 95 
 
 VIII 
 
 HE had made a second visit to the Dead Sea 
 that morning, and having further explored the 
 place, had jumped on his horse and started 
 in search of Little Ony Swango, in whose 
 domain the great pond lay. 
 
 The Dead Sea covered about four hundred 
 acres, and was fed by the spring freshets of the 
 river, which, overflowing its bank at the mouth 
 of a little valley half a mile above Swango's 
 Gap, filled the natural basin between the river 
 and the upland barrens with a volume of muddy 
 water to which, except over the rim of the 
 valley, itself higher than the basin, there was 
 no outlet. The result was a stagnant pool, to 
 partially evaporate under the summer sun, 
 leaving its margins marshy quagmires, grown 
 up with rank underbrush and fringed with 
 greenish fungus. Here solitude settled over 
 decay. There was no sign of life except that 
 which feeds on corruption. Perhaps a sleek 
 muskrat dropped into the water, a torpid turtle 
 crawled out on a rotting log, or a funereal heron
 
 96 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 stood sentinel. In summer grotesque dragon- 
 flies shimmered, and spectral butterflies quiv- 
 ered above the fetid mould. At times a cloud 
 of turgid mist ascended, and brackish odors 
 rose with it. Overhead, in periods of drought, 
 the sky was like a yellow desert, while the 
 reek of the flat fumes was insidiously nauseous. 
 It was not strange that by a people so impres- 
 sionable as the negroes this spot was shunned 
 in superstitious dread ; that they believed it ac- 
 cursed from above and ruled from below ; that 
 to them the swamp fires which were sometimes 
 seen near it were the personal materializations 
 of the Evil One ; and that old Dru Wingate, who 
 lived on its edge and caught her tadpoles and 
 devil's-horses in its fens, was his vicegerent. 
 
 Andrew Outcault, riding from this desolate 
 spot to the home of Little Ony Swango, and 
 failing to find him there, traced him to Cap'n 
 Pow Halliburton's law office in Feme Run, 
 where, sitting on one chair, a leg over the seat 
 of another chair, and the back of a third caught 
 under his arm, he was slowly rolling his 
 hickory walking-stick to and fro between the 
 palm of his hand and his extended leg, and 
 silently listening to Cap'n Pow's voluble war 
 reminiscences.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 97 
 
 "Why, hello, Andrew!" Cap'n Pow broke 
 off as Outcault entered, " I did n't know you 
 were in town." 
 
 " I wanted to see Mr. Swango, and I followed 
 him here," Outcault explained. 
 
 "Howdy, Andy? What's in the wind?" 
 Ony lifted his head, and his greeting was 
 plainly one of curiosity as well as friendliness. 
 
 Young Outcault, with characteristic direct- 
 ness, at once disclosed his mission. " Mr. 
 Swango," he said, " will you sell the Dead 
 Sea ? " 
 
 " What the Dead Sea ? " exploded Cap'n 
 Pow, his high, boyish voice breaking in a 
 roulade of infectious laughter. 
 
 Ony's shoulders were shaking and his face 
 was contorted with a smile. Ony rarely 
 laughed, but he sometimes smiled ; and when 
 he smiled there was often a ponderous convul- 
 sion throughout his whole corporeal being. 
 
 " Did you say sell the Dead Sea, Andy ? " 
 he asked, straightening his face. 
 
 " Yes, sir." Outcault's jaw closed firmly 
 after the words, and he refused to see any 
 cause for amusement in his inquiry. 
 
 " Oom, well, I reckon I won't," Ony replied, 
 dropping his eyes to the floor again. 
 7
 
 98 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " Would you tell me why, sir ? " 
 
 " Becaze, Andy, there ain't nobody that would 
 be a gormed goose enough to buy it." 
 
 " I '11 buy it, sir." 
 
 There was another of Cap'n Pow's roulades 
 of laughter, but Ony's smile now extended 
 only to his eyes and lips as he again glanced 
 up at Outcault. " Look-ahere, Andy," he said, 
 "what new dido are you a-projickin now? " 
 
 " I '11 give you three hundred dollars for it. 
 I 'd give you more if I had it. But you say 
 that's three hundred dollars more than any- 
 body else would give for it." 
 
 Cap'n Pow forgot to laugh, in his astonish- 
 ment, and Ony Swango rose heavily from his 
 seat before replying. " Three hundred dollars 
 for the Dead Sea ! " he exclaimed, throwing 
 his coat over his shoulder. " Why, boy, I 'd 
 as soon sell you a quarter section of the 
 moon." 
 
 " I '11 make you another proposition, Mr. 
 Swango," Outcault said, moving a step nearer. 
 "I'll give you three hundred dollars for the 
 Dead Sea outright, or I '11 undertake to drain 
 it for a share of the reclaimed ground. If I 
 succeed there will be four hundred acres of the 
 finest land in the world."
 
 Red Blood and Blue 99 
 
 " Dreen it ? Dreen the Dead Sea ? " Ony 
 roared in amazement. " Why, if the Almighty 
 had a-intended it to be dreened he would n't 
 a-made it ! " 
 
 " You might as well say, sir, that if he had 
 intended your woods to be cleared he would n't 
 have made them." 
 
 " Oom, well," not quite so positively, " I 
 reckon that argument don't hold, Andy. In 
 the beginning he created the water and the 
 dry land, an' he set his marks and demarks. 
 An' he said, thus fur an' no furder ; an' thus 
 fur an' no furder it has been and shill be, tell 
 time shill be no mo'. Nobody befo' ever 
 thought of such a outlandish thing as dreenin' 
 the Dead Sea. Nobody but you, Andy Out- 
 cault, ever would a-thought of it. Say, how 
 the gormnation ken you dreen her, anyhow, 
 Andy ? " 
 
 Cap'n Pow was no longer moved to laugh. 
 He was flushed with excitement, and his soft 
 beard was suffering from the nervous unrest of 
 his hand. " If anybody can do it," he volun- 
 teered, " I '11 lay you Andrew can, Ony 
 Swango ! " 
 
 Ony Swango had long been considered one 
 of the most " enterprising " men of the county.
 
 ioo Red Blood and Blue 
 
 He had made money while his neighbors had 
 merely made a living. He had been among 
 the first to recognize and utilize the new con- 
 ditions following the abolition of slavery. He 
 farmed as a vocation, not as an avocation. He 
 was a leader of those who discontinued the 
 cultivation of cotton for diversified crops of 
 grain and grass. He introduced new methods 
 and new machinery. But he still believed in 
 the goose-bone as a weather prophet, and he 
 still insisted that the " razor-backed " hog, 
 mast-fed, was the only meat fit to be hung 
 up in the smoke-house ; while it would have 
 occurred to him as readily to doubt the exist- 
 ence of old-fashioned " hell-fire " as to lay an 
 iconoclastic hand on such a landmark as the 
 Dead Sea. 
 
 He listened with an occasional non-commit- 
 tal " Oom ! " as Andrew Outcault explained 
 his plans. They were surely simple enough. 
 A ridge of rock was to be blasted away and 
 an outlet for the water was to be thus provided 
 through Swango's Gap into the river. Higher 
 up, at the mouth of the gorge through which 
 the Dead Sea was fed by the spring floods, 
 a levee was to be constructed, and the Dead 
 Sea, thus dammed at one end and drained at
 
 Red Blood and Blue 101 
 
 the other, would soon be a four-hundred acre 
 tract of rich alluvial land. 
 
 Outcault was explicit and confident; Cap'n 
 Pow was enthusiastic ; Ony Swango sat down 
 again, grunting dubiously and occasionally 
 putting a gruff question as the young man 
 pressed his arguments. It was not until 
 several days later, after two other interviews 
 with Outcault on the subject, and after Ony 
 had laboriously re-read the first chapters of 
 the Book of Genesis, that he consented to let 
 Outcault try his "projick; " the terms being 
 that in case of its success Outcault was to 
 have half of the reclaimed land.
 
 IO2 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 IX 
 
 WHEN the details of this transaction became 
 public, as they soon did, Feme Run and the 
 surrounding country awoke to a mild sensa- 
 tion of amused gossip. It was the joke of the 
 day, and of many days. Ony Swango had 
 taken up a lot of "new-fangled notions," but 
 nobody had expected him to countenance such 
 a visionary scheme as this. He would be try- 
 ing to make a fish-pond of Bald Knob next. 
 And as if there were not more land all around 
 him than was cultivated, or than there was 
 any use for ! Maybe he expected to bottle the 
 Dead Sea and supply the world with Colonel 
 Sellers' celebrated eyewater. As for young 
 Outcault, he was the real point of the joke. 
 He was clearly the son of his father, and the 
 breed was cropping out early. If you could 
 not make a silk purse from a sow's ear, no 
 more could you make one from any of her 
 litter. Ony Swango ought to be smart enough 
 to remember Jerry Outcault and his cotton- 
 picker; many of those who made this remark,
 
 Red Blood and Blue 103 
 
 however, failing to remember that Ony Swango 
 had been smart enough to avoid the trap in 
 which they themselves had been caught by 
 Jerry Outcault and his cotton-picker. 
 
 Ony, when thus twitted, did not appear to 
 be disturbed. " Oom," he would grunt good- 
 naturedly, " I ain't got nothin' to lose, an' I 
 have got two hundrud acre of extry Ian' to gain. 
 An' don't you worry about Andy Outcault. 
 Any boy that could bring out Cap'n Pow 
 Halliburton's farm like Andy's done an* 
 Cap'n Pow a-puttin' in all his licks a-larruppin' 
 the judge an' jury an' a-lambastin' the Yankee 
 army will be mighty ap' to take keer of 
 hisse'f." 
 
 Andrew Outcault was not unaware that he 
 was looked upon as a great joke now, but that 
 affected him even less than it did Ony Swango. 
 He went energetically about his preparations 
 for his new work, smiling, perhaps, or respond- 
 ing briefly in kind, but losing no time, when 
 some countryman, with his leg over the saddle 
 pommel, inquired how much mud-cat he ex- 
 pected to raise to the acre. 
 
 At the outset he was retarded by the unfore- 
 seen difficulty of obtaining hands. The negroes 
 refused to take employment on the Dead Sea,
 
 104 ked Blood and Blue 
 
 They would not challenge the malevolent 
 powers of the unseen world by meddling with 
 their works in this. So it was that on the 
 autumn day when Andrew Outcault began his 
 operations against the Dead Sea his only 
 assistants were Line, the son of Bev, and a 
 Polish Jew, whom Line called " a Dutchman," 
 for in this region all foreigners whose native 
 tongue was not English were known by both 
 whites and blacks as " the Dutch." Line, 
 having spent several years of his youth in 
 that centre of enlightenment for his be- 
 nighted race, the city of Nashville, prided 
 himself upon his superiority to the foibles of 
 the " country niggers." Yet even Line, when 
 he and Andrew had each drilled into the rock 
 at the edge of the Dead Sea, insisted that not 
 his charge, but Andrew's, should be the first 
 to be fired, the while he rolled his eyes across 
 the murky water, on the far shore of which the 
 gaunt form of old Dru Wingate was standing 
 sternly in the door of her hut. 
 
 The explosion of that first blast stirred into 
 unprecedented commotion the stillness of the 
 Dead Sea. There were the "swish" and 
 " chug " of slimy things as they slid or plunged 
 into the water; among the reeds were croaks
 
 Red Blood and Blue 105 
 
 from hoarse throats and the sweep of wings 
 in sudden flight; high up a buzzard floating 
 sluggishly over the putrescent morass tremu- 
 lously flapped its pinions and, wheeling, fled 
 beyond the rim of the barrens ; on the surface 
 of the shivering pool the white belly of a 
 dead fish gleamed in the sun ; while following 
 the ripples straight across the lake toward the 
 now empty door of old Dru Wingate's hut, the 
 small, sinister heads of a pair of water-snakes, 
 as sharply defined as intaglios, cleft their way. 
 Seeing which, Line, in a voice splitting be- 
 tween hysterical defiance and defence, broke 
 into the old song of the quarters: 
 
 " Wake, snakes, day 's a-breakin' ! " 
 
 The reverberations of that first blast beat 
 through the calm of the countryside for miles 
 around, and at the sound the farm-wife came 
 to the door to look under the shadow of her 
 hand for the thunder-cloud, remarking that 
 she had known that it would rain before night ; 
 while the business man in Feme Run, uncross- 
 ing his legs and brushing the whittlings from 
 his trousers, chuckled that the more fools 
 there were like Andrew Outcault the more 
 blasting powder would be sold. Cap'n Pow
 
 io6 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 Halliburton, sitting in front of his office and 
 entertaining a group of fellow-idlers with proofs 
 of how the Confederacy would have " whipped " 
 if Forrest had been in command at Fort Don- 
 elson, sprang to his feet as if at a sudden call 
 to boots and saddles, and with head thrown 
 back said, in a voice that was a cross between 
 the note of a clarion and the pop of a whip-lash : 
 
 " By the godts ! " 
 
 Then, with a magnificent sweep of his arm 
 which carried his hand from the roots of his 
 beard to its tips and thence half around the 
 circle of the horizon, he added : 
 
 "Gentlemen, do you know what that is? 
 It is the sunrise gun the sunrise gun for 
 the county of Torrance, gentlemen ! " 
 
 And in another minute he was again lolling 
 in his chair, fighting over the war as it should 
 have been fought. 
 
 Squire Kemp, leaning out of his buggy to 
 chat with Ony Swango over Ony's pasture 
 fence, also heard the boom of Andrew Out- 
 cault's opening blast, and the Squire laughed 
 broadly in Ony's face. 
 
 " ' Dah, now! ' " was the Squire's comment. 
 " As the old darky said when the first gun at 
 Sumter was fired, ' dah, now ! hell done laid 
 a aigg!'"
 
 Red Blood and Blue 107 
 
 " Oom, I dunno," Ony Swango replied, 
 biting a dried spear of blue-grass. "Maybe 
 it is a aigg, but I dunno about the breed of 
 Andy's hen." 
 
 It was not long before Andrew Outcault 
 had all the laborers he wished. After that 
 first explosion old Dru Wingate was never 
 again seen in that part of the country. Out- 
 cault said that she must have departed during 
 the night, but there was a report among the 
 negroes, authorized by no less a personage 
 than Line himself, that the old woman had 
 been blown straight from the doorway of her 
 hut to another world when that first charge 
 of blasting powder was touched off. The 
 devil's vicegerent having thus been removed 
 from her haunts on the Dead Sea, there was 
 no dearth of black hands to do Outcault's 
 bidding, though there was not one of them, 
 including even Line, who, notwithstanding 
 Dru's translation, would remain a minute 
 after " sundown." 
 
 The work went on throughout the fall and 
 winter, and before the floods of the spring 
 came an outlet had been made for the water 
 through Swango's Gap, the inlet above had 
 been strongly dammed, and the summer of
 
 io8 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 the next year saw what had been the bottom 
 of the Dead Sea a vast field of luxuriant 
 Indian corn. Andrew Outcault's three hun- 
 dred dollars of capital was now represented 
 by two hundred acres of land that was ac- 
 knowledged by those who had laughed at 
 him most to be worth from fifteen to twenty 
 thousand dollars.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 109 
 
 ABOUT five years later Andrew Outcault was, 
 for the first time, perhaps, the subject of a 
 general conversation at the The Mounds. It 
 was at the supper table. The dining-room, 
 with its high ceiling, with its frescoing dimmed 
 into a misty phantasmagoria, and its zinc- 
 painted woodwork, once a glistening white, 
 now a creamy yellow, was similar in construc- 
 tion to the drawing-room, from which it was 
 divided by a pair of sliding mahogany doors 
 that had been brought with the Chippendale 
 furniture from the homestead of Victoria Tor- 
 ranee's maternal ancestors in Virginia. These 
 doors were now open, and but for the great 
 mirror in its tarnished frame covering the en- 
 tire space between the high front windows of 
 the drawing-room, and but for the furniture 
 and the newer and cheaper carpet of the 
 dining-room, the two apartments were one in 
 appearance. The tall mantels, the hearths, 
 and the skirting-boards were of gray marble,
 
 no Red Blood and Blue 
 
 sometimes stained and oftener cracked. The 
 pictures were confined to family portraits, con- 
 spicuous among which were that of the pioneer 
 James York Torrance in skin cap and hunt- 
 ing shirt, and one by Jouett of the present 
 James York Torrance's father, in the nonde- 
 script uniform in which he had fought with 
 Jackson at New Orleans. 
 
 Over the dining-table hung fans of peacock 
 plumes, which were pulled backward and for- 
 ward by means of a cord in the hands of a 
 young negro ; while the " likeliest " yellow 
 girl on the place was kept busy bringing fresh 
 supplies of hot biscuits and waffles from the 
 kitchen. James York Torrance sat at one end 
 of the table and Miss Juliana Torrance at the 
 other. Besides Victoria, Clara, and Lee Tor- 
 rance, there were present Rosalie Kemp and 
 Arthur Feme. Feme had just declined a 
 fourth offer of hot biscuits and Lee was accept- 
 ing a second helping of chicken. 
 
 " Speaking of chicken," Lee said abruptly, 
 with nothing of the manner which distin- 
 guished his father, "there's a new kind in 
 the country. Andrew Outcault imported 
 them for Janet Rearden. Says they '11 lay 
 seventy per cent, more eggs, are easier to
 
 Red Blood and Blue 1 1 1 
 
 raise, and make better eating than common 
 chickens. But the old-fashioned, long-tailed, 
 yellow-legged, every-day chicken is good 
 enough for me." 
 
 At the mention of Andrew Outcault's name 
 Miss Juliana and Miss Clara glanced furtively 
 at James York Torrance, and Miss Juliana 
 threw a look of reproof at Lee. James York 
 Torrance, however, betrayed only polite atten- 
 tion to the remarks of his son, and himself 
 broke the unusual silence which followed 
 them. 
 
 " That young man," he said, " is full of 
 new ideas, I believe, since he returned from 
 that school up North. What school was it, 
 Lee?" 
 
 " I don't know. Some heathenish name." 
 
 " I know," volunteered Rosalie Kemp, tri- 
 umphantly. " It was a school of technology. 
 But I don't know what a school of technology 
 is." 
 
 " He was full of new ideas, though, such as 
 they were," said Arthur Feme, " before he 
 went to the school." 
 
 " Of course he was ! " affirmed Lee. " Look 
 at the new kinks he put in at Cap'n Pow Halli- 
 burton's place, and look at the Dead Sea. Be-
 
 112 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 sides, it was a new idea to go to a school like 
 that. Nobody here ever did it before." 
 
 " I think," said Miss Juliana Torrance, level- 
 ling her eyes at Lee over her coffee-cup, " that 
 it would be a very good rule of life not to take 
 it upon one's self to do what nobody here ever 
 did before." 
 
 " And I think," cut in Miss Clara, impaling 
 a pickled gherkin on her fork, " that persons 
 who try to push themselves out of their proper 
 places are intolerable." 
 
 " Really, Clara," she was answered by Rosa- 
 lie Kemp, " they say he is very nice." 
 
 " How could he be, Rosalie ? " Miss Clara 
 spoke conclusively. " It would be impossible, 
 with such an origin." 
 
 " I understand he has made quite a success 
 of his waterworks at Feme Run," said Arthur 
 Ferae. 
 
 " That 's what ! " Lee corroborated. " When 
 he was trying to get up the company nobody 
 would have anything to do with it except 
 Little Ony Swango and Cap'n Pow Halli- 
 burton and that Dutchman who worked for 
 Outcault on the Dead Sea say, that Dutch- 
 man will own half of Feme Run yet ! All the 
 rest of them refused to touch the stock because
 
 Red Blood and Blue 113 
 
 they said they had not forgotten Outcault was 
 the son of his father, and " Victoria caught 
 his eye with a swift, peremptory, yet appealing 
 look of warning, and glancing at James York 
 Torrance, Lee colored a little and, with dropped 
 face, took a sup of water before finishing in a 
 lower tone : " And now the stock can't be 
 bought at all." 
 
 " I hear," James York Torrance turned to 
 Feme, " that he is also agitating a proposition 
 for a branch railroad between Feme Run and 
 Mavistoc." 
 
 " Yes, sir," Feme replied ; " and there is an 
 impression that it may go through. People 
 seem to be beginning to believe in him, and 
 the opinion is that the county will grant the 
 right of way, though, of course, the main diffi- 
 culty will come when he attempts to float the 
 bonds for its construction." 
 
 " A railroad for Feme Run ! How lovely I " 
 Rosalie Kemp exclaimed. 
 
 " If Feme Run never has a railroad until 
 Andrew Outcault builds it " Miss Clara's 
 nose and her sentence were both in the air. 
 
 "Well, railroads have their advantages," 
 James York Torrance reflected, " but for 
 me " he paused and then continued with 
 8
 
 H4 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 his eyes on the portrait of James York Tor- 
 ranee the pioneer "I am not so sure that 
 I should not be willing to see our old com- 
 munity escape their materializing tendencies 
 during my life-time." 
 
 " Yes," assented Miss Juliana, with spirit ; 
 " I have travelled on the cars but once since 
 the war, and then there were two disgusting 
 creatures with a bottle of whiskey between them 
 in the seat across the aisle, and there was a 
 negro family in the seat in front of me. I 'm 
 sure I 'm well enough satisfied without any of 
 their railroads." 
 
 " The railroad is not the only new scheme 
 Andrew Outcault has on hand," Feme smiled. 
 " He has made several trips away recently, and 
 I saw in a Nashville paper the other day that 
 he had an option on some old lands down the 
 river that he believed contained valuable phos- 
 phate beds." 
 
 " And that is n't all ! " broke in Lee. " I 
 heard of his very latest to-day. What do you 
 reckon he is going to take to raising on his 
 Dead Sea farm ? " 
 
 "Wooden nutmegs?" answered Miss Clara. 
 
 " You would n't guess in a week. Horse- 
 radishes.''
 
 Red Blood and Blue 1 1 5 
 
 " Horse-radishes ! " cried Miss Juliana, with 
 a little laugh much higher pitched than was 
 often heard from her. 
 
 " Horse-radishes or horse-ponds ? " returned 
 Miss Clara. 
 
 "Why, I thought horse-radish came in bot- 
 tles," confessed Rosalie Kemp. 
 
 " Then it will come in bottles for that chap 
 if it comes for anybody else," Lee replied. 
 
 "Are n't you mistaken, Lee ? " asked James 
 York Torrance. " What could one possibly 
 do with any considerable quantity of horse- 
 radishes ? " 
 
 " Outcault says there is a good market for all 
 he can produce, father. He has been experi- 
 menting, and analyzing the soil, and all that, 
 and he says that horse-radishes are what about 
 ten acres of it is best adapted for. So Janet 
 Rearden told me." 
 
 " Janet Rearden ! Why will you associate 
 with such people, Lee? " chided Miss Juliana. 
 
 " Janet Rearden ? " he answered in affected 
 surprise. " Why, present company excepted, 
 she's the prettiest girl in the county." 
 
 " It is useless to remonstrate with Lee Tor- 
 rance about his associates, Cousin Juliana," 
 Miss Clara reminded her, with resigned 
 disapproval.
 
 n6 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " Waterworks, railroad, phosphate beds, 
 horse-radish farm," repeated James York Tor- 
 ranee, with one of his rare, gentle smiles : " are 
 there any other worlds which this young Alex- 
 ander has set himself to conquer ? " 
 
 No one answered until Rosalie Kemp spoke. 
 " He was at church with Mabel Gorman Sun- 
 day night," she said. 
 
 There was a laugh around the table, and 
 Rosalie blushed a little. " Oh, I did n't mean 
 that ! " she protested. 
 
 "Beaux are scarce at Feme Run," explained 
 Miss Clara. 
 
 " But not with Mabel Gorman, Clara," Vic- 
 toria suggested. 
 
 " It was not until recently, I believe," Feme 
 said, "that Outcault appeared to care for the 
 society of the ladies." 
 
 " It was not until recently, after people began 
 talking about his success in making a few 
 dollars," Miss Clara retorted, " that the ladies 
 would have anything to do with him. Feme 
 Run society seems to be getting very modern. 
 I suppose it will be taking up the Dutch next." 
 
 Rosalie Kemp usually wished to laugh when 
 Miss Clara was serious and severe, but Rosalie 
 only dimpled and smiled now. " I met Andrew
 
 Red Blood and Blue 117 
 
 Outcault last week at Mabel Gorman's," she 
 said, " and, actually, Clara, he was not so 
 abominable. Really, I rather liked him." 
 
 " One can rather like a person," Miss Clara 
 decreed, " without forgetting who he is." 
 
 " Or without forgetting his proper place," 
 mildly echoed Miss Juliana. 
 
 " Or without forgetting that he is able to 
 make a living for himself," mocked Lee. 
 
 " And," continued Rosalie, her smile gather- 
 ing more mischief, " I do believe he would 
 have asked permission to call on me " 
 
 "The presumption! "interjected Miss Clara. 
 
 " if I had not asked him to call," Rosalie 
 completed. 
 
 " Ros-a-lie Kemp ! " was all that Miss Clara 
 could or would say ; but there was a sufficiency 
 in the way she said it and the way she looked 
 it. 
 
 "To so forget your family graveyard!" 
 Lee caught the tone of his sister as his eyes 
 twinkled across the table upon Rosalie. 
 
 For a little Miss Juliana seemed to hesitate 
 as to what construction she should put upon 
 Rosalie's avowal; then she said with forced 
 lightness, as she deposited her napkin on the 
 table :
 
 n8 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " Why, Clara, you never seem to understand 
 when Rosalie is joking." 
 
 " I am sure," said James York Torrance, ris- 
 ing, " that if the young man has found any 
 sort of favor with Rosalie he is to be con- 
 gratulated upon his fortune more than upon 
 a dozen successful railroads and phosphate 
 mines." 
 
 Rosalie curtsied airily to this gallant speech 
 and caught the old man's arm as he turned 
 from the table. His other hand was slipped 
 into one of Victoria's, and between the two 
 girls he walked from the dining-room, bending 
 his well-poised white head to either side that 
 their prattle might not escape his failing ears. 
 Rosalie Kemp's cheeriness and her fearless- 
 ness of himself were peculiarly grateful to this 
 reticent, sensitive recluse, and next to Victoria, 
 whose devotion to him grew stronger and ten- 
 derer, if possible, as he grew older and feebler, 
 he liked to have Rosalie near him.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 119 
 
 XI 
 
 LATE one afternoon Andrew Outcault, a few 
 minutes after he had ridden past the Kemp 
 homestead, met Rosalie's dog-cart Rosalie's 
 phaeton had now been succeeded by the more 
 fashionable vehicle. Rosalie was driving, and 
 Outcault knew, as soon as the cart came in sight 
 over the hill a quarter of a mile away, that her 
 companion was Victoria Torrance. The sun, 
 dropping over the hill behind them, threw them 
 into bold relief, and played like electricity on 
 the metal of the harness. Outcault instantly 
 stiffened in his saddle, as if it had been veritable 
 electricity and had charged his own body; his 
 head went higher, and he breathed the deep 
 breath that sends the blood tingling through all 
 one's being. The horse felt the change in the 
 rider and at once responded with quickened 
 pace. Almost before the last of the black- 
 birds which flew up at his feet had settled 
 with garrulous expostulations in the tree-tops 
 the two horses were so near together that 
 Outcault saw the flexile curves of Victoria's lips
 
 120 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 as she talked. His hand fell more heavily on 
 the reins and his horse slackened to a walk. 
 Whether consciously or not, Outcault was 
 doing what little he could to protract by even 
 a second the draught permitted his long-denied 
 eyes in passing. 
 
 Riding to the right, he drew so near Victoria, 
 sitting on the left side of the cart, that he could 
 have reached out and touched her with his hand. 
 Rosalie smiled and greeted him, with a note of 
 genuine cordiality, and as he swept his eyes 
 from her to Victoria she too spoke to him, in 
 that manner, never lacking in courtesy, and 
 ever marked by unlessening distance, which 
 had always characterized her salutations of him 
 since the day, years ago, when he had borne 
 her away from the cotton-field. 
 
 Brief as it necessarily was, the look in which 
 Outcault held her, as he approached and passed, 
 absorbed in a pulsing image, which he bore on 
 with him, every detail of her presence, the 
 beautiful lines of shoulders and neck ; the 
 firm grace of chin and cheek; the soft warmth 
 of the clear skin ; the living hue of the lips ; 
 the star-shot shadows of the eyes ; the lumin- 
 ous face parting the dusk of the hair, whose 
 deeps of brown and glints of amber might have
 
 Red Blood and Blue 121 
 
 been touched with the afterglow of an ended 
 summer day. 
 
 Outcault pressed his heels upon his horse's 
 sides and galloped the rest of his way with 
 long, free strides. It was a habit of his, when 
 his breathing was full and his heart-beats strong, 
 to ride at such a gait. There was something 
 in its sweep and power that was in grateful 
 consonance with his mood. Thus he rode when 
 his mind surged with some new and daring 
 determination to break through his environ^ 
 ments in fighting his way upward. Thus he 
 had ridden that Monday when he had deter- 
 mined upon the redemption of the Dead Sea 
 valley ; thus he had ridden, mile after mile, on 
 the day when he had decided that the county 
 should have a railway outlet. He was rid- 
 ing now to a sudden resolution that meant 
 more to him than had any of the others which 
 had so affected his life. It was the resolu- 
 tion to accept Rosalie Kemp's invitation to 
 call to accept it to-night, because to-night 
 Victoria Torrance would be with Rosalie 
 Kemp. 
 
 Except for a glimpse of her now and then in 
 her distant pew at church, or when passing her 
 pji the highroad, as he had passed her this
 
 122 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 afternoon, he had not seen Victoria since the 
 incident of Rosalie Kemp's memorable and 
 never repeated cotton-picking picnic. The 
 work to which he had set himself on the night 
 when Cap'n Pow Halliburton had told Andrew 
 Outcault the story of his father exacted of him 
 long years of otherwise directed energy before 
 it would permit him to think of any actual 
 attempt to change the personal relations be- 
 tween Victoria Torrance and himself more in 
 accordance with his ever-present passion and 
 ultimate purpose. That work proposed that he 
 should win for himself among the people who 
 had known his father a place which would com- 
 pel the respect his father had forfeited ; that 
 he should repair the wrongs his father had 
 done, at least to the extent of making good 
 every dollar of his father's theft ; and that if 
 ever again he was to be ordered from any man's 
 premises, as he had been on the day when he 
 had shot James York Torrance's pigeon, or if 
 he was to be denied by any man aught which 
 was deemed the due from one manly man to 
 another, it should not be because, in the clear- 
 ing-house of men among men, there should be 
 any balance of obligation and performance, 
 against himself.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 1 23 
 
 The varying fortunes of undaunting failure 
 and forced success which had befallen him 
 through all these years had been such that for 
 some time now he had felt he was at least near 
 that point in the course he had marked for him- 
 self at which he would be able to make res- 
 toration of the money his father had stolen. 
 Though' Outcault had never disclosed such a 
 purpose, yet, it being now agreed that there 
 was " something in him," that he was a " hus- 
 tler " of self-reliance and pluck, and that while 
 he was undoubtedly clouded by a past he 
 was also " a rising young man " in a region 
 where there was no surplus of young men of 
 any kind, bars began slowly to fall and doors 
 to open which offered him a partial entrance, 
 if no more, to the social life from which hereto- 
 fore he had been excluded. Being vigorously 
 healthy in mind as well as in body, living in 
 the present and for the future, instead of nurs- 
 ing the past, and coursing with the currents of 
 youth, of active days, and that sweet sleep 
 which blesses one with new birth every morn- 
 ing, he had a normal bent for the companion- 
 ship of his kind, and he accepted, though he 
 never sought, these opportunities for its grati- 
 fication. It was thus that he began occasion-
 
 124 R e d Blood and Blue 
 
 ally to take part in the simple gayeties of the 
 young people of Feme Run and the country- 
 side the infrequent picnics and barbecues, 
 the county fair, or a Christmas dance. After 
 a while there were households where he felt 
 that he was welcome to a chair by the parlor 
 fire, or on the veranda when the honeysuckles 
 bloomed and the girls, in cloudy-light drap- 
 eries, laughed in the summer dusk or star- 
 light. And then it was that on Sunday 
 evenings at church, the very centre of Feme 
 Run's social life, the one place where everybody 
 was seen and everybody saw, Andrew began to 
 appear among the young men who walked up 
 the aisles with the village maidens, and sat 
 beside them in the pews, and held with them 
 the same hymn-books. When that time came 
 Andrew Outcault, though far from its inner 
 sanctuary, was generally conceded to have been 
 admitted at least into the vestibule of Feme 
 Run society. 
 
 It was thus that he met Rosalie Kemp, and 
 when she asked him to call on her Outcault 
 felt a bounding joy which nothing in his lim- 
 ited social experience had ever approached. 
 Rosalie was Victoria Torrance's most intimate 
 friend, and what lover of Victoria Torrance
 
 Red Blood and Blue 125 
 
 would not have placed Rosalie above all other 
 women, after Victoria? Arthur Feme did, as 
 everybody knew ; for it was obvious that 
 Arthur Feme, in his devotion to Victoria, and 
 in his consideration lest he weary her by too 
 great assiduity, saw more, perhaps, of Rosalie 
 than of Victoria herself. 
 
 When Outcault, as he met the two girls on 
 the highway this afternoon, galloped on with 
 his suddenly formed intention to return to the 
 Kemps' that evening, it was with no introspec- 
 tive qualms as to the wisdom of such a step, 
 and no speculation as to its ultimate results. 
 He had simply loosed the restraint he had put 
 upon himself so long and sprung to his desire 
 to see Victoria Torrance face to face again, 
 with no self-imposed thought, beyond the im- 
 mediate opportunity, of either his past or his 
 future. 
 
 When he set out for Squire Kemp's, after a 
 zest at supper that inspired several of Cap'n 
 Pow Halliburton's best campaign stories, the 
 new moon was sinking behind a greenish pyr- 
 amid of cloud in the west, and there was a 
 fitful stir in the stagnant atmosphere that 
 turned the pallid underleaves outward in 
 warning. He struck into the free gallop
 
 126 ' Red Blood and Blue 
 
 that he loved, with an exultant " Go, boy ! " 
 that was responded to by his horse with 
 lengthened stride and ears laid back. He 
 rode as if to welcome the coming storm, and 
 as a lance of fire flashed from the pyramid's 
 peak and the first peal of thunder shook the 
 earth he sniffed in pure delight the freshen- 
 ing air and broke into a bar of the drivel 
 about " Dandy Jim," which he had forgotten 
 since the days of his boyhood. Meeting a 
 dog scurrying, tail lowered, before the wind, 
 he fell into another trick of his boyhood, and 
 with a wanton laugh bent from his saddle and, 
 brushing the dog with his hand, sent the 
 frightened creature yelping into the woods. 
 Swiftly the pyramid rose and spread ; the stars 
 before him and then above him disappeared, 
 and when he had ridden three-fourths of the 
 way to Squire Kemp's the big drops began to 
 fall. In another minute they were coming in 
 a fusillade ; then in sheets. Black darkness 
 closed down, and only the lightning showed 
 him the road between the torrents that rushed 
 at its sides and under its culverts. Strange, 
 vast sounds filled the forest on either hand, 
 the creak and crash of wrested bough, the 
 stress of bended bole, the fierce chords and
 
 Red Blood and Blue 127 
 
 mysterious undertones, the moan and sough, 
 the rage and glee, the hurtling roar and plain- 
 tive sob, of wind and rain, leaf and wood. 
 
 The storm passed almost as swiftly as it had 
 come, and Outcault left it behind him as his 
 horse bounded over the trunk of a tree that 
 had been blown across the road. He left be- 
 hind him the forest and its dying din of spent 
 blast and cloud, to emerge into the open 
 stretches of grassland and tilled fields, with 
 the stars shining; the gurgle of water in the 
 gullies ; the lisp of the wet bushes in the 
 fence corners ; the drip of the foliage ; the 
 purity of the air that seemed to flow from 
 the blue, dark spaces of the stars as from the 
 deeps of some great cool cavern ; the twinkle 
 of lights not far away that meant the end of 
 his journey. There was also the click of 
 horseshoes on the macadamed road just ahead 
 of him ; and galloping to the side of the rider, 
 Outcault recognized Arthur Feme. 
 
 Outcault laughed. " So you, too, were 
 caught in that waterspout, Mr. Feme," was 
 his greeting. 
 
 " Hello ! is that you, Outcault ? " Feme 
 replied. " And as wet as I am ? J thought I 
 got it all."
 
 128 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " I wish you had. I 'd have been willing to 
 spare my share of it." 
 
 " It spoils a whole evening for me. I was 
 on my way to call on some ladies." 
 
 " So was I. And there they are, now, I 
 should say." Outcault pulled up his horse 
 in front of the Kemp homestead, set back a 
 hundred yards from the road. The eastern 
 side of the house had been protected from the 
 storm, and the light shining from the hall 
 showed that the veranda on that side was 
 occupied by figures in white. 
 
 Feme reined in his horse also, and turned 
 upon Outcault a quick, unconscious glance of 
 surprise, which Outcault did not see. " Our 
 destination was the same, it seems," Feme 
 said, after a moment. " It 's too bad ! We 
 sha'n't have time to return home and dress 
 again. And the night so fine, after all ! " 
 
 " Are n't you going in ? " Outcault asked, 
 as if studying the problem before him. 
 
 " Why, no ; I 'm drenched," Feme answered, 
 looking at his companion curiously. 
 
 " I am, too ; but I have come too far to 
 make this call to give it up entirely now." 
 
 " Why, man, surely " Feme was on the 
 point of saying, " surely you would not think
 
 Red Blood and Blue 129 
 
 of appearing in the presence of ladies in 
 your plight ; " but he did not say it. He 
 would not think of it himself. In his view it 
 would be a disrespect to ladies of which he 
 could not be guilty. But it was not in such 
 delicacy as his to protest against or criticise 
 Outcault's expressed purpose, and he finished 
 his sentence with a slight laugh and, "Well, 
 if you are bent on trying it I wish you a 
 pleasant time. Good-evening. I '11 strike 
 over to the Kelway pike." 
 
 " I 'm going to see if I can't speak to them, 
 at least, from the outside," Outcault answered, 
 as Feme rode away. 
 
 That was Outcault's solution of the problem. 
 He rebelled against returning wholly balked of 
 his object. He could not enter the house, but if 
 the girls were on the veranda he might approach 
 as near as the railing for a few words with them. 
 Perhaps in the imperfect light his unpresenta- 
 ble condition might not be noticed. 
 
 At any rate, he was not going back now 
 without making the experiment. Under his 
 wet clothes he was glowing with a physical 
 reaction that warmed to stronger life the spirit 
 in him which brooked no trifles. He opened 
 the gate and rode through. Throwing the 
 9
 
 130 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 reins over a hook in the hitching-post near 
 the house, he started toward the white-gowned 
 figures on the veranda. But he had taken 
 only a few steps when he saw that he would 
 be unable to avoid the light . from the hall. 
 Rosalie Kemp arose, and coming to meet him, 
 stood in its direct range. 
 
 " It is Mr. Outcault, Victoria," she called. 
 " How do you do, Mr. Outcault ? " 
 
 She extended her hand, and Outcault, ad- 
 vancing to take it, was clearly revealed. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Outcault!" she cried; "you are 
 wringing wet ! You must have been in all that 
 terrible rain ! " 
 
 " Yes," Outcault smiled ; " but I saw you 
 were out here, and I thought I might come as 
 far as the edge of the porch, if only for a 
 moment. Good-evening, Miss Torrance." 
 
 " Good-evening, Mr. Outcault." 
 
 Victoria, sitting just beyond the line of 
 light, responded to his greeting without ris- 
 ing, and as she might have responded to any 
 acquaintance. 
 
 " Indeed, you must come right in and dry 
 yourself ! " Rosalie insisted. " Do look at the 
 water running from his hat, Victoria." 
 
 Outcault glanced down at his hat, as he held
 
 Red Blood and Blue 131 
 
 it in his hand, and at the small stream trickling 
 from the brim. " I thank you, Miss Kemp ; 
 but I could not think of that. Really, it is of 
 no consequence." 
 
 " But you must ! Only oh, dear ! there is 
 no fire in the house, unless there is still some 
 in the kitchen. You must come straight to 
 the kitchen, Mr. Outcault." 
 
 " You are very good, Miss Kemp ; but please 
 do not think any more about it." Outcault 
 was getting earnestly emphatic now. "A wet- 
 ting cannot hurt me in this weather. Besides, 
 I shall be on my horse again in a minute." 
 
 " Oh, I know ! " Rosalie proclaimed, in sud- 
 den triumph. " Papa shall give you some dry 
 clothes. Sit down just a second, Mr. Outcault. 
 O papa ! papa ! " and she disappeared through 
 the hall, calling her father, and paying no heed 
 to Outcault's vigorous protest. 
 
 Outcault was becoming a little vexed that he 
 should have got himself into a situation to 
 suggest such demands upon hospitality. His 
 face showed his vexation as he stood looking 
 after his vanished hostess. Then the absur- 
 dity of it came over him, and he turned his 
 eyes to those of Victoria Torrance. For a 
 little they looked at each other in waiting
 
 132 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 silence, broken then by the spontaneous laugh- 
 ter of each; and Victoria repeated Rosalie's 
 invitation : 
 
 " Won't you sit down, Mr. Outcault ? " 
 
 " No, I thank you, Miss Torrance. But, of 
 course, I could n't ! " laughing again as he 
 shook the water from his hat to the ground. 
 " Really, this seems very ridiculous ; but I did 
 not intend to cause all this commotion. The 
 simple truth is that I deceived myself with the 
 belief that I could stop by for a few minutes in 
 the darkness without exposing my wetness to 
 discovery." 
 
 Nevertheless the glow of his body was in- 
 creased just then by gladness that he had come ; 
 for never before had he felt that Victoria Tor- 
 rance was so near to him as when she had 
 laughed with him at his predicament. 
 
 Squire Kemp bustled out, beaming with the 
 instinct of impersonal hospitality. 
 
 " How are you, Outcault, how are you? But 
 I see ! Come right along with me," he insisted, 
 " and I '11 fix you out right away. I Ve got a 
 suit of tow-linen that the ladies think irre 
 sistible." 
 
 The squire's laugh was jolly, but his re- 
 peated invitation was a command. Outcault,
 
 Red Blood and Blue 133 
 
 renewing his demurrer and declination, was 
 beginning to feel that he must obey or retreat, 
 when Rosalie reappeared, bearing a waiter on 
 which were two goblets topped with sheaves 
 of green mint. 
 
 " You must drink this at once," she ordered, 
 going up to Outcault ; " it will keep you from 
 taking cold." 
 
 " Or taking anything else," the squire added 
 proudly. " Young man, you will join me in a 
 glass of Lincoln County that is older than you 
 are." 
 
 " With pleasure, Squire." 
 
 Outcault lifted one of the goblets from the 
 waiter as Squire Kemp appropriated the 
 other. 
 
 " Cap'n Pow Halliburton's toast," the squire 
 said, touching his glass to Outcault's and in- 
 cluding Victoria and Rosalie in the sweep of 
 his eyes and his arm. " ' To the ladies : there 
 is no liquor too good to drink to them ; there is 
 none good enough for them to drink.' " 
 
 The juleps were disposed of and the squire 
 added, as he wiped his lips : " I like that toast. 
 It fits our Southern women. Why, Arthur 
 Feme was telling me the other day that at a 
 place called Syracuse, in the State of New
 
 134 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 York, the most elegant ladies not only drank 
 juleps with him, but they drank julep for julep, 
 sir ! What is the country up there coming to, 
 Outcault? Think of it! And think of the 
 sort of liquor they must have to drink, sir, in 
 Syracuse, New York ! " 
 
 Outcault, recognizing the fact that there was 
 nothing for him to do but change his clothes 
 or leave, soon took his departure, with a touch 
 of Rosalie's offered hand and a " Good-night, 
 Miss Torrance," to Victoria, who responded 
 in the same words and the same perfect man- 
 ner in which she had greeted him on his 
 coming. 
 
 He was followed to his horse by Squire 
 Kemp, who wanted more time to discuss 
 Arthur Feme's report that in the North it was 
 almost impossible for a gentleman to get a 
 drink of "good liquor." "Do you know what 
 those people up there make what they call 
 whiskey out of? Rye, sir ! Upon my word, sir, 
 rye ! Why, sir, Arthur Feme tells me that there 
 is many a man up there who professes to be an 
 expert on the subject of good liquor who never 
 saw a drop of Bourbon in his life. Think of 
 that ! As Cap'n Pow Halliburton says, ' They 
 licked us, and they may lick us again and
 
 Red Blood and Blue 135 
 
 again, but, by the godts ! they never can lick us 
 into an integral part of a country that drinks 
 rye-water for whiskey ! ' Well, young man, 
 how 's that railroad coming on ? " 
 
 " Not as well as I could wish, squire ; but it 
 will be built." 
 
 " You think so ? " 
 
 " I know it." 
 
 " And of course you are as sure it will pay a 
 man to invest a few dollars in it." 
 
 " In one way, yes ; in another, I am not so 
 sure. It will pay us all because it will give us 
 an outlet to market, but, frankly, I doubt if it 
 can pay dividends on the stock for a long time, 
 if ever. But the bonds will be safe for four per 
 cent. You have not made your subscription 
 yet." 
 
 " Subscription ! I don't want any four per 
 cent, investment." 
 
 "But you want the road. And it won't be 
 many years before you will be glad to get 
 good four per cent, investments." 
 
 " Well, come to see me some time and we 
 will talk it over." 
 
 Outcault smiled as he sprang into the saddle. 
 He knew what " some time " meant among his 
 happy-go-lucky neighbors. " I will meet you
 
 136 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 in Feme Run any day you like, Squire," he 
 suggested. 
 
 " Oh, well, most any day." 
 
 " Better name it," Outcault said, gathering 
 up the reins. 
 
 The squire laughed. " Well, I 've got to be 
 in town Thursday, anyhow." 
 
 " Then I '11 see you Thursday. Good-night, 
 Squire Kemp." 
 
 " Came a-courting and goes a-talking busi- 
 ness," chuckled the squire as he sauntered 
 back toward the house. "Well, he's a differ- 
 ent sort of a business man from his daddy, and 
 I '11 bet piggins to pints he gets me into that 
 railroad yet." 
 
 As his horse picked his way back leisurely, 
 unurged, Outcault's thoughts were not of rail- 
 roads nor was his consciousness of the tonic 
 balm of the rain-washed forest and steeped 
 earth. His revery was broken as his horse 
 stopped with a whinny at Cap'n Pow Hallibur- 
 ton's gate. A few minutes later, after a plunge 
 in the swimming pool, which was one of the 
 " improvements " he had made at Cap'n Pow's, 
 Outcault was in bed. But for the first time in 
 years he turned from one side to the other 
 wakefully. Finally, when the cocks began
 
 Red Blood and Blue 137 
 
 crowing the yet invisible dawn, he spoke aloud, 
 as he settled his face upon the pillow. 
 " I will marry her, so help me God." 
 Then he set his teeth together, closed his 
 eyes, and went to sleep.
 
 138 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 XII 
 
 OUTCAULT did not profess that easy and all- 
 sufficing philosophy which provides, in a uni- 
 versal vicar called Fate, a gratuitous shift for 
 the inertia of the indolent and the failure of the 
 impotent, and which stretches under the in- 
 dividual, as a netting between his aspirations in 
 the air and his tumbles toward the earth, the 
 comforting theory that somewhere, everywhere, 
 there is a power at once so great and so small 
 as to assume and shape the individual fortunes 
 of the myriads of men. If he had professed 
 such a philosophy, he would have complained 
 that Fate was playing him a characteristically 
 remorseless trick when, just as he had reached 
 that point where he felt he could turn his eyes 
 to Victoria Torrance, just as he saw his way 
 clear to wiping out the black score his father 
 had left and to taking that place among his 
 fellows whence he could make his fight for 
 his life's desire, he should find it his part 
 to do that which seemed to leave the chasm 
 between him and Victoria wider than ever.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 139 
 
 This trick which he might have ascribed 
 to Fate was really played by the hot blood of 
 Cap'n Pow Halliburton. 
 
 Captain Powhatan Halliburton, known wher- 
 ever he was known at all as Cap'n Pow, was 
 accustomed and proud to boast that he was 
 still " an unreconstructed Rebel." He had 
 come by his military title honestly. He had 
 been one of Forrest's officers, and it was well 
 understood wherever the fame of Cap'n Pow 
 extended that the " maddest " moment in all 
 his life had been that night when Forrest, 
 refusing to remain at Fort Donelson to be 
 bagged by Grant, rode indignantly away with- 
 out being given an opportunity and aid to 
 bag Grant. It was also almost as widely 
 understood that perhaps the proudest day in 
 Cap'n Pow's life was when he dashed with 
 Forrest down the main street of Feme Run 
 right in front of the house of A Certain Lady, 
 at whose door A Certain Lady herself stood 
 waving a handkerchief and rode out again 
 a few hours later with "a drove of Yankee 
 prisoners," as Cap'n Pow expressed it, far 
 outnumbering their captors in butternut and 
 gray. And during all the years since his 
 return to civil life these two incidents of his
 
 140 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 service with Forrest were signally potential 
 with Cap'n Pow, the one for hope, the other 
 for wrath. Fort Donelson was never men- 
 tioned in his presence without making him 
 " mad ; " and it was something stirring to 
 see and hear the vehemence of gesture and 
 words with which he denounced the surrender 
 and proved that if Forrest had been in com- 
 mand Grant would have been beaten and the 
 Confederacy ultimately would have triumphed. 
 As for the time when he charged with Forrest 
 down the Feme Run street, ah, well! it 
 was no secret, and never had been to those 
 who knew this gallant and open-hearted gentle- 
 man, that he yet hoped to install as mistress 
 of his own home the Lady who stood in her 
 door that morning and waved her handker- 
 chief to the flying troopers. 
 
 Cap'n Pow was, as they said in all the Feme 
 Run region, " a mighty clever " man. If he 
 had been politically ambitious he could have 
 had any office " within the gift of the people," 
 as the Feme Run Recorder had more than 
 once testified. He was geniality itself when- 
 ever he was not " mad," and he was never 
 mad long. By no means a minor factor of 
 his popularity was his proved fearlessness
 
 Red Blood and Blue 141 
 
 proved not only in, but since, the war; for it 
 was understood that he had been the leader 
 of the Ku Klux Klan in the county during 
 the chaotic period when some such power 
 seemed necessary, and he was the most daring 
 and active in putting down the organization 
 when it had degenerated into an instrument 
 of mere rowdyism and crime. 
 
 In appearance Cap'n Pow was not more 
 than the average in height, with a step which 
 had lost little of the buoyancy of his youth. 
 His eyes, bright and twinkling, were less the 
 " windows of his soul " than the lights of his 
 body. His dark hair, touched with gray, 
 though now thinning at the top, still fell thick 
 and glossy to his velvet collar. The texture 
 of his skin, when closely shaven, was femi- 
 ninely fine. It was usually closely shaven on 
 his cheeks, but his lips and chin were covered 
 by a silky beard, which was to his left hand, in 
 some similitude, what the strings of a guitar 
 are to the hand of the player. Cap'n Pow 
 habitually played with his left hand upon his 
 beard, and he played the whole gamut of his 
 emotions except perhaps when their inten- 
 sity impelled to a physical expression requir- 
 ing the more forcible employment of his hands.
 
 142 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 Whether Cap'n Pow sat on the veranda of an 
 evening, his feet across the railing and his 
 left hand slowly caressing his beard with the 
 leisurely flow of his reflections, or whether in 
 conversation, animated, emphatic, reminiscen- 
 tial, or speculative, this manipulation of his 
 beard, not ungraceful in itself, was variously 
 and often vividly interpretative of his thoughts. 
 It was even once said by a person of refine- 
 ment that if anything could mitigate the 
 offence of expectorating tobacco it was the 
 deft deprecation in that performance with 
 which Cap'n Pow swept his beard without the 
 line of fire, and the serene unconsciousness 
 with which he readjusted it over any fleck that 
 may have stained his shirt-bosom. 
 
 For Cap'n Pow was fastidious of his dress ; 
 and especially of his boots and coat-collars. 
 The boots, at least when -he visited the town 
 where A Certain Lady resided, were always 
 of finest calf, brightly polished and high-heeled. 
 His collars, whether attached to coats of jeans, 
 cassimere, or broadcloth, were invariably of 
 velvet. He had once heard A Certain Lady 
 say that velvet collars gave an air of distinc- 
 tion to a gentleman, and he could see in his 
 own case that they accentuated the fineness
 
 Red Blood and Blue 143 
 
 of his skin and his beard. He was partial to 
 broadcloth, and his coats, dark blue and full- 
 skirted frocks, were rarely of any other mate- 
 rial. With a soft hat and a Lord Byron collar, 
 he was an attractive figure to feminine eyes 
 when he went to Feme Run, as he did almost 
 daily, and the fact that he had not yet married 
 was considered as corroborative of the theory 
 that in affairs of the heart women are much less 
 than men influenced by personal appearance. 
 
 Cap'n Pow was by profession, though not 
 much by practice, a lawyer. There was, in- 
 deed, but little law practice at Feme Run, 
 with a surplus of lawyers, and Cap'n Pow 
 being accustomed on slightest provocation to 
 fly into a passion and denounce in violent and 
 rapid volleys of eloquence the judge, the jury, 
 the opposing counsel, and even the lawyers 
 associated with him on his own side of the 
 case, was not in great professional demand. 
 
 Not long before he enlisted with Forrest, he 
 had bought a farm out on the Oldbury pike 
 and had built a home in accordance with his 
 own ideas ; there taking up his residence, and 
 riding into town daily to attend to his law 
 business or crack jokes with his brethren of 
 the bar as they loafed in their offices or sat
 
 144 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 under the trees outside. Almost any one in 
 Feme Run could have told you that Cap'n 
 Pow had been governed in the choice of a 
 home by the fancy or the taste of A Certain 
 Lady. The Oldbury pike was the popular 
 drive of the people of Ferae Run, and when 
 A Certain Lady, sitting behind Cap'n Pow's 
 three-minute trotter, drove of a Sunday after- 
 noon out that road with Cap'n Pow, his face 
 glowing, his eyes dancing, and his beard 
 streaming over his shoulder, she was wont, as 
 Cap'n Pow frequently testified to his confiden- 
 tial friends, to sigh in praise of the loveliness 
 of Ostard's Grove and in exclamation of the 
 happiness that would be hers if she had a dear 
 little cottage in just such an idyllic sylvan 
 nook. As it was about this time that Cap'n 
 Pow bought the tract of land of which Ostard's 
 Grove was a part and began building a cottage 
 in the grove, his confidential friends, who 
 embraced a large proportion of the inhabi- 
 tants of Torrance County, were not at a loss 
 to explain why he had made a bargain which 
 was generally considered a bad one. 
 
 For a long time Cap'n Pow lived alone in 
 the cottage which he had built with so much 
 care in Ostard's Grove. No one was able to
 
 Red Blood and Blue 145 
 
 say positively why he did not marry ; but it 
 was well understood that Cap'n Pow had his 
 own theories about ladies, and that one of 
 them was that a lady's answer to a proposal of 
 marriage depended largely, if not chiefly, upon 
 the propitiousness of time and circumstances 
 with which it was made to her. And there 
 were some of Cap'n Pow's confidential friends 
 who had ample reason to believe that Cap'n 
 Pow had never yet determined in his own 
 mind, or discovered in his experience, just 
 what time and circumstances were adequately 
 propitious for a favorable answer. 
 
 Certain it was that no lady shared Cap'n 
 Pow's cottage until he took to live with him 
 his widowed sister, Mrs. Rearden, and her 
 daughter, Janet. Mrs. Rearden, such was the 
 prevailing opinion, was not one to bring to 
 his home all those feminine graces and benig- 
 nities without which it was known Cap'n Pow 
 held life to be sadly incomplete, for she was a 
 woman of a fertile and despondent imagination, 
 which kept her in the clutches of many and 
 deadly maladies ; an imagination which fed 
 voraciously upon all advertisements of patent 
 medicines in the newspapers and the almanacs, 
 immediately revealing to her as her own the
 
 146 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 harrowing arrays of desperate symptoms set 
 forth therein, and alarming her into spending 
 most of her own and much of Cap'n Povv's 
 substance to provide herself with the remedies 
 for her bodily afflictions thus disclosed to her 
 from time to time by her assiduous reading. 
 But whatever trial Mrs. Rearden may have 
 been to Cap'n Pow, he found more than com- 
 pensation in the presence of Janet, a child 
 with the soberness of mature womanhood 
 upon her and a quiet sympathy in her ways 
 that completely won the warm heart of Cap'n 
 Pow, and represented in a partial degree some- 
 thing of what he had missed and still hoped for 
 in the home which he had built in Ostard's 
 Grove. 
 
 Mrs. Rearden, having one day discovered 
 from her reading that she was afflicted with 
 both incipient angina pectoris and well-ad- 
 vanced neurilemmitis, and laying in supplies 
 of the advertised remedies for both maladies, 
 having swallowed the nostrums alternately 
 the same hour, discovered when too late that 
 the medicines did not mix well, and died be- 
 fore a physician could reach her. For Janet, 
 then motherless as well as fatherless, Cap'n 
 Pow Halliburton's affection became all the
 
 Red Blood and Blue 147 
 
 more solicitous; and when the girl grew up 
 and Lee Torrance began to indicate a parti- 
 ality for her, Cap'n Pow's anxiety added an 
 erratic restlessness to the hand with which he 
 thridded his beard as he sat on the veranda in 
 the evenings. 
 
 Lee was an anomaly among the Torrances. 
 He seemed entirely unimpressed by the Tor- 
 rance traditions, history, or responsibilities to 
 the future. Thus far his object in life had 
 been his own pleasure, which he took wherever 
 it was to be found, but which was frivolous 
 rather than vicious. His father bore with him 
 patiently, for one of James York Torrance's 
 spirit ; having, indeed, long since abandoned 
 any hopes regarding the young man except 
 that he might in time mature into a respect- 
 able medium for the transmission of the Tor- 
 rance name, and that meanwhile he should 
 go to no extreme that could bring dishonor 
 to that name. The boy had always appeared 
 oblivious of Miss Juliana Torrance's acerbic 
 disapprobation and martyr-like resignation, 
 while he laughed openly and good-humoredly 
 at Clara's undisguised contempt. Victoria, 
 though only his half-sister and three years his 
 junior, was the one member of the household
 
 148 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 for whose good opinion he seemed to care, and 
 her he held in a combination of affection and 
 almost reverential admiration whose influence 
 she did not weaken by either patronizing or 
 upbraiding him. 
 
 The distasteful problem which Lee Torrance 
 had set Cap'n Pow Halliburton was finally 
 solved one evening when, Janet not being at 
 home, Lee, calling, was engaged by Cap'n Pow 
 on the veranda and was requested, in as cour- 
 teous words as Cap'n Pow could frame, to dis- 
 continue his visits to Janet, which, owing to 
 the disparity in the social gradations of the two 
 families, to say nothing of any other reasons, 
 must provoke undesirable gossip. Lee, red- 
 dening, had bowed himself away with, for once, 
 all the dignity of the Torrance manner. " As 
 you please, sir," was all he had replied, not 
 deigning to discuss the subject, or to make 
 either promise or protest. 
 
 It was about six o'clock, a week afterwards, 
 when Outcault left the train at Mavistoc, after 
 an absence of several days in Nashville. In an 
 hour he had got his supper and his horse and 
 was well on his twenty-five miles ride over the 
 Feme Run road. It was not later than ten 
 that night that, less than half a mile from Cap'n
 
 Red Blood and Blue 149 
 
 Pow Halliburton's, he saw walking rapidly to- 
 ward him along the turnpike a man with a gun 
 on his shoulder. Before he was near enough 
 for recognition the man turned aside and began 
 climbing the fence of the field in which Outcault 
 had shot the quail on the day when he had also 
 shot James York Torrance's pigeon. The fence 
 was high, and by the time the man had thrown 
 his leg over the top rail Outcault had ridden 
 up close enough to distinguish the features of 
 Cap'n Pow Halliburton in the moonlight. 
 
 " Cap'n Pow ! " he exclaimed in astonish- 
 ment, pulling up his horse short. " What is 
 the matter ? Where are you going ? " 
 
 It was plain that Cap'n Pow was moved by 
 some strong excitement. As he poised him- 
 self on the fence-top and turned toward Out- 
 cault, Cap'n Pow's face was strangely wrought, 
 his eyes were preternaturally brilliant, and the 
 hand with which he held the gun trembled until 
 the sheen of the gun-barrel quivered in the 
 moonlight. When he answered it was with 
 sharp vehemence. 
 
 " To James York Torrance's," he said. " Go 
 home and wait for me there an hour. If I do 
 not return by that time you may come for 
 me."
 
 150 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 Outcault spurred his horse to the side of the 
 fence and laid his hand on Cap'n Pow's arm. 
 " What is it, Cap'n Pow ? " he asked anxiously. 
 " What are you about to do? " 
 
 " To right an infernal wrong, sir ! Do not 
 detain me. I have no time for talk now." 
 
 Outcault's hand tightened on the man's arm. 
 " But can you not tell me what it is ? " he 
 asked, with gentle firmness. " Surely I some 
 one beside yourself ought to know." 
 
 " Janet ! Lee Torrance ! They ran away to 
 Mavistoc last night to be married. When 
 they got there one of them or both of them 
 backed out, and there was no marriage. He 
 brought her back before daylight this morn- 
 ing, and they agreed that it should be kept a 
 secret between them. But Janet broke down 
 to-night and told me. I immediately went to 
 Feme Run and got a marriage-license and a 
 minister. They are waiting at home now. I 
 am on my way to The Mounds for the groom. 
 Go on to the house and wait for us." 
 
 Outcault was silent for a little before reply- 
 ing. " Have you thought this over fully ? " he 
 asked. " Are you sure you are doing what is 
 best ? Does Janet wish to marry him now ? " 
 
 "Janet shall marry him now! They drove
 
 Red Blood and Blue 151 
 
 to Mavistoc in a buggy. They were together 
 all night. I know that there was nothing 
 wrong. I would kill the man who would say 
 that there was. But the story would ruin 
 Janet here, and there's but one thing to do. 
 Janet agrees with me in that." 
 
 " Has the story got out ? " 
 
 " Janet says that they were not recognized 
 by any one; that nobody else knew of the 
 affair until she told me of it. But that makes 
 no difference. It may or may not become 
 known; but the marriage must take place 
 now. Let loose my arm." 
 
 Outcault obeyed. " Had you not better wait 
 and think it over, at least until to-morrow?" 
 he urged, as Cap'n Pow, with the activity of 
 a much younger man, jumped down into the 
 field. 
 
 " I am done thinking and talking about it," 
 Cap'n Pow said curtly, and started toward The 
 Mounds. 
 
 Outcault tied his horse to the fence, and 
 swinging over, soon caught up with Cap'n 
 Pow. 
 
 "Where are you going?" the older man 
 asked. 
 
 " I think some one ought to accompany you,"
 
 152 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 Outcault replied, " if you are determined on 
 this." 
 
 " I don't, sir. You will oblige me if you will 
 return to your horse." 
 
 Outcault walked on for a few steps in 
 silence, his eyes on the ground. 
 
 "Would you have them say that I played 
 the coward, sir ? " Cap'n Pow demanded. 
 "That two men sought to bully one? No, 
 sir! I shall go alone. I shall take no ad- 
 vantage of him, and I shall have it out with 
 him, man to man." 
 
 " Cap'n Pow," Outcault spoke with more 
 deliberation than was his habit, " I want to 
 ask of you a great favor for myself." 
 
 " I would do anything in the world for you, 
 Andrew. I owe you a thousand times more 
 than I can ever repay you. But you must not 
 ask me an impossibility. You must not ask 
 me to sacrifice honor and Janet's good name 
 for you." 
 
 " I don't. If you won't wait, if you insist 
 on this thing to-night, what I ask is that you 
 let me go in your place." 
 
 Cap'n Pow for a second stopped in the mid- 
 dle of the field. " You ? Go in my place ? " 
 he said more softly. " Why, that would be out
 
 Red Blood and Blue 153 
 
 of the question. And what earthly good could 
 it do ? " 
 
 "This," Outcault explained as they walked 
 on. " You say you will have it out with Lee, 
 man to man. But you are an old man and he 
 is a young one ; may you not be yourself at a 
 disadvantage if it comes to violence ? Be- 
 sides, you know, Cap'n Pow, that your temper 
 is high, and inflamed as it now is against Lee, 
 unfits you for talking the matter over with 
 him. If you go there with that gun you are 
 almost sure to do something that may be un- 
 necessary, and that you will always regret." 
 
 " Mush and milk ! I am going there to 
 either make him marry her or to kill him." 
 
 " But I suppose that your desire is that he 
 shall marry her, while you are far more likely 
 to kill him, or be killed. Lee is pretty quick 
 on the trigger himself." 
 
 Thus it went, Outcault reasoning and plead- 
 ing and Cap'n Pow scoffing and refusing, until 
 they reached The Mounds, and, skirting the 
 high picket fence, came to the gate at the be- 
 ginning of Torrance Avenue. Here Cap'n 
 Pow halted and, jamming the butt of his gun 
 on the ground, said decisively : 
 
 " All right, Andrew ; I '11 do it. I don't
 
 154 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 want to, but I '11 do it for you. Now, remem- 
 ber : he must come at once to my house and 
 marry Janet, or he must take the conse- 
 quences," tapping the gun. " I will give you 
 just thirty minutes to attend to the business. 
 Look at your watch. We are together. It is 
 now ten minutes after ten. I will wait here. 
 If you are not back at this gate by ten-forty I 
 will immediately come to the house and finish 
 the business myself. Understand : he marries 
 Janet to-night or, by God, somebody dies." 
 
 " I understand. Give me the full half hour," 
 Outcault said, as he passed through the gate 
 and walked rapidly toward the house.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 155 
 
 XIII 
 
 IT was a walk of two hundred yards, perhaps, 
 and every detail of it was vivid as long as he 
 lived. As he left Cap'n Pow the guilty thought 
 flashed over Outcault that if he had remained 
 in Nashville another day, as he had at one 
 time intended, he would have been spared the 
 necessity of placing this further barrier be- 
 tween himself and Victoria Torrance. He 
 knew that it should be a contemptible thought, 
 and yet at the time he felt no self-contempt for 
 entertaining it. The lid of the night drew 
 down on him oppressively. Over the moon had 
 drifted a wisp of cloud through which the light 
 sifted like a phosphorescent vapor. Under his 
 feet the gravel grated harshly and slipped as if 
 to stay his steps. The iteration of a katydid 
 sawed across his ears. There was an insistent 
 mockery in the metallic quavers of the tree- 
 frogs and in the elfish torches of the fireflies. 
 Around the house came a hound baying deeply, 
 and a man's voice called the dog back, as the 
 glow of a cigar-point was shifted on the veranda.
 
 156 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 Outcault, as he approached, saw that the 
 cigar was in the hand of Lee Torrance, who 
 had risen and was waiting at the top of the 
 steps to receive him. 
 
 " Mr. Torrance," Outcault said, pausing two 
 steps below. " I was looking for you. I 
 should like a few words with you." 
 
 " How are you, Mr. Outcault ? " offering his 
 hand ; " I am at your service. Will you come 
 in, or would you find it pleasanter on the 
 veranda ? " 
 
 Outcault saw that the windows to the left of 
 the entrance were lighted, but that the veranda 
 to the right was in darkness. " I presume we 
 shall be alone out here," he suggested. 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 Lee led the way to the darkened end of 
 the veranda, drawing two chairs with him. 
 " Sit down," he said hospitably. " Won't you 
 join me with a cigar ? " 
 
 Outcault thanked him, but declined both 
 invitations. Stopping at the extreme end of 
 the veranda, he plunged into his mission. 
 
 "To come at once to the object of my 
 visit, Mr. Torrance : I have just left Captain 
 Halliburton ; he thinks you have compromised 
 Miss Rearden by your trip to Mavistoc last
 
 Red Blood and Blue 157 
 
 night, and that the indescretion can only be 
 repaired by marriage." 
 
 Lee was leaning against a pillar of the 
 veranda. He did not remove the cigar from 
 his mouth, nor did he make any answer. 
 
 " I have come to say, Mr. Torrance, that it 
 is hoped, upon reflection, you will take the 
 same view of the matter." 
 
 Lee was still silent, but the glow of his cigar 
 was waxing rapidly in the darkness. 
 
 Outcault went resolutely on : "Of course 
 you understand the sensitiveness of public 
 sentiment here regarding such conventionali- 
 ties, and recognize " 
 
 " Mr. Outcault ! " Lee cut him off sharply, 
 throwing the cigar away and withdrawing 
 from the support of the pillar. "I do not 
 recognize your right to discuss this question 
 with me. It is a question which lies entirely 
 between Miss Rearden and myself. Let us 
 say no more about it." 
 
 " You forget that the world does not consist 
 entirely of Miss Rearden and yourself," Out- 
 cault continued. "There is another point 
 which it is right should be brought to your 
 attention. You know Captain Halliburton. 
 You know what an irresponsible madman he
 
 158 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 is when his passions are aroused. I have 
 tried to induce him to postpone any action 
 until he is calmer, but he will not listen to 
 me. He swears that you must marry Janet 
 to-night, or that your life or his must be for- 
 feited. I tell you this not as a threat I do 
 not think you could be intimidated but that 
 you may understand the actual conditions and 
 that you may weigh them well before you 
 bring upon yourself, upon your family, upon 
 both families, the shock of violence, the stain 
 of blood." 
 
 Lee answered with incisive emphasis that 
 could not be misunderstood: 
 
 " Mr. Outcault, I shall be pleased to talk with 
 you upon any other subject. Upon this I have 
 not another word to say, and if you say another 
 you will force on me the discourtesy of turning 
 my back upon a guest." He took a step away 
 from Outcault, pausing to await his decision. 
 
 " Very well," Outcault replied ; " but you 
 compel me to a still more unpleasant course. 
 I am determined to do what I can to prevent 
 this tragedy, and I shall now urge your father 
 to bring his influence to bear upon you. Will 
 you show me to him, or shall I find my way 
 alone?"
 
 Red Blood and Blue 159 
 
 Lee bowed ceremoniously. " I shall be 
 happy to save you that trouble. Come." 
 
 Outcault followed, through the hall and into 
 the room whose illuminated windows he had 
 observed at the other end of the veranda. 
 
 The scene as he entered smote him anew with 
 the incongruity of his mission and the thank- 
 lessness of the part he was playing. James 
 York Torrance was almost reclining in a big 
 easy-chair, his slender hands clasping loosely 
 its arms, his thin face lifted placidly, as he 
 listened to Victoria, who, sitting near the 
 table, the mellowing rays of the lamp soften- 
 ing her charms of color and contour, was read- 
 ing aloud. 
 
 Outcault, just over the threshold, involunta- 
 rily checked himself, as if to withdraw ; Victoria 
 looked up, her eyes calmly curious, then widen- 
 ing with surprise and wonder; while James 
 York Torrance, as yet unconscious of the inter- 
 ruption, still gazed contentedly at the ceiling. 
 
 Victoria rose with a bow to Outcault ; Out- 
 cault flushed, with an answering bow and a 
 murmur of " Miss Torrance ; " and James 
 York Torrance stirred, looking uncertainly 
 toward Outcault and Lee. 
 
 "Father," Lee said, "this is Mr. Outcault
 
 160 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 Mr. Andrew Outcault who wishes to see 
 you on an affair of importance." 
 
 The old gentleman, rising, and directing 
 a puzzled glance of inquiry at Lee, turned to 
 Outcault and saluted him with unaffected 
 grace. 
 
 " Pray be seated, Mr. Outcault," he said, 
 waving the uncomfortable young man to a 
 chair near the table which divided father and 
 daughter. 
 
 Outcault placed his hand on the back of the 
 chair indicated, but did not sit down. The 
 others, including Victoria, were still standing, 
 and Victoria started quietly to the door, as if 
 to withdraw. Lee promptly called her back. 
 
 " I wish you to remain, Victoria," he said. 
 " It is a family matter that Mr. Outcault pro- 
 poses to speak about, and I want you to get 
 the straight of it." 
 
 Victoria paused, and Outcault flashed a pro- 
 testing look at Lee. " Do you think this 
 advisable? " 
 
 " I insist upon it," Lee replied. 
 
 Outcault bowed acquiescence, and, as Vic- 
 toria returned to her seat, he took the chair 
 which James York Torrance, resuming his own 
 chair, again waved to him.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 161 
 
 " Would it not be preferable, Mr. Torrance," 
 Outcault said to Lee, " that you should explain 
 the cause of my visit? The facts are more 
 accurately within your knowledge." 
 
 Lee hesitated a moment, while his father 
 looked from one young man to the other, and 
 Victoria's eyes, fixed upon her brother, dark- 
 ened with a vague foreboding. 
 
 "Very well," he assented, with emphasis. 
 " If I make any errors, please correct me." 
 
 " I shall accept your narrative of the facts," 
 Outcault declared. 
 
 Lee bowed and turned to his father. " Mr. 
 Outcault comes as the representative of Captain 
 Halliburton," he began, with unusually distinct 
 enunciation. " Captain Halliburton is the 
 uncle and, I believe, the guardian of Miss Janet 
 Rearden. For some time I have been in love 
 with Miss Rearden." 
 
 James York Torrance inclined his body sud- 
 denly a little farther forward, his lips parted 
 and then closed tightly, but he said nothing 
 and kept his eyes riveted on his son. 
 
 " Miss Rearden," Lee went on firmly, " does 
 me the honor to say that my suit is not dis- 
 pleasing to her. It does not meet the approval, 
 however, of Captain Halliburton, who has re-
 
 1 62 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 quested, I may say ordered, me to discontinue 
 my attentions to his niece. Last night I sought 
 Miss Rearden and persuaded her to leave home 
 for the purpose of marrying me at once, without 
 the knowledge of Captain Halliburton. We 
 drove to Mavistoc, reaching there shortly after 
 twelve o'clock. The town was asleep, the 
 court-house closed. We had started to drive 
 to the residence of the county clerk, to arouse 
 him and secure the license, when Miss Rearden, 
 who for some minutes had shown an inclination 
 to reconsider her consent to the elopement, 
 became hysterical and insisted that I should 
 turn around and start back home. This angered 
 me, and, though I complied with her demands, 
 I reproached her with such feeling that she 
 seemed to repent her change of mind and again 
 consented to the marriage. But I did not care 
 to go on with it then, under such conditions. 
 I told her that I would take her back to Captain 
 Halliburton's and that she should have time to 
 think over the matter calmly and reach a final 
 decision. We got to Captain Halliburton's 
 about four o'clock this morning, without, so far 
 as I was aware, any one besides ourselves 
 knowing of our trip. The subsequent develop- 
 ments Mr. Outcault can explain to you better
 
 Red Blood and Blue 163 
 
 than I can. I have just heard of them through 
 him." 
 
 Lee ceased speaking and, turning his eyes 
 from those of his father, which seemed to burn 
 deeper and deeper into their sockets, looked 
 sullenly at nothing. Victoria made a sudden 
 motion as if to rise and go to her brother, but 
 sank back in her chair and watched him anx- 
 iously. James York Torrance squared himself 
 upon Outcault and waited, silent and, but for 
 the slight tremor of the hand clutching the arm 
 of his chair, motionless. 
 
 There was a perceptible tautening of the 
 muscles in Outcault's cheeks as he set his jaws 
 before beginning. " I have told Mr. Torrance," 
 he said, " that last night's events, in Captain 
 Halliburton's opinion, make an immediate 
 marriage imperative. Mr. Torrance declines 
 to consider Captain Halliburton's demand. I 
 have sought this interview with you, sir, in 
 order that I might appeal to you to advise your 
 son otherwise." Then he went on to urge the 
 practical reasons why Lee should not refuse 
 the demand of Cap'n Pow, ignoring all moral 
 cast of the question and discussing it alone 
 from the attitude of expediency. " As I under- 
 stand," he was saying, " Mr. Torrance wishes
 
 1 64 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 to marry Miss Rearden, but he resents all 
 appearance of dictation to that end. But can 
 he not, ought he not, put aside that phase of 
 the matter in view of the peculiar conditions 
 that now exist in view of the rashness and 
 unreasonableness of Captain Halliburton and 
 of the sad consequences to both families that 
 may follow a collision between the passion of 
 one side and the pride of the oth " 
 
 " Stop, Mr. Outcault ! " 
 
 The tint of the apple-blossoms which Out- 
 cault so well remembered was now pink against 
 the ashes of the skin and the snow of the hair. 
 The old gentleman raised one hand in warning, 
 palm outward, the fingers curving as with 
 rheumatism and closing tightly as he brought 
 the fist down with a blow on the chair-arm. 
 " I cannot hear any more, sir. Whom and when 
 my son shall marry are matters for his own 
 decision. The point, sir, upon which you ask 
 me to intervene seems to be that my son in 
 making his own decision declines to be moved 
 by threats of force. I cannot but applaud, 
 rather than-attempt to dissuade, him. I have 
 never heard of an instance in which a Torrance 
 did not act for himself in such affairs, and I 
 thank God that the Torrance manhood has not
 
 Red Blood and Blue 165 
 
 so degenerated through any son of mine. I 
 must beg you, sir, upon this subject, to consider 
 our interview at an end." 
 
 He stood up, very straight except for a slight 
 inclination forward from the hips, which was 
 plainly a bow of dismissal. 
 
 Outcault, rising, drew his watch and saw 
 that he yet had about ten minutes of grace 
 from Cap'n Pow. When he looked up from 
 his watch Victoria Torrance was standing by 
 the side of her father, her hand on his sleeve, 
 her eyes searching his face, her lips opening in 
 quick, broken words. 
 
 " Oh, father ! " she was saying, " wait ! Are 
 you sure might it not be possible " 
 
 The deep eyes of the old man looked down 
 on her as if from a dream, conscious now for 
 the first time of her presence. A tender smile 
 wavered on his stony lips, to leave them in a 
 moment stonier than before. 
 
 "What are you doing here, Victoria?" 
 he asked. " You must not concern yourself 
 in this affair. There is no more to be said 
 about it." 
 
 She looked intently, steadily up at him ; then 
 she shrank back, and turning away, crossed 
 swiftly to Lee, who had been standing, with
 
 1 66 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 the gleam of a smile in his eyes after his father 
 had risen so abruptly, but who was now watch- 
 ing Victoria with wonder and with clouding 
 countenance. 
 
 Victoria ran up to him and stopped, her 
 throat swelling, her face mantling with crowd- 
 ing and conflicting impulses. 
 
 " Lee ! " she cried, " oh, Lee ! " clasping one 
 hand quickly over the other and then halting 
 as if doubtful what she would say, or as if 
 impotent to say it. 
 
 " Why, Victoria," Lee exclaimed, " what is 
 the matter?" 
 
 She seemed to gain control of herself sud- 
 denly and completely. 
 
 " Lee," she spoke, in the rich voice which 
 Outcault had heard before, but which was now 
 charged with a majesty of authority and an 
 undertone of appeal that thrilled him with 
 their new power and sweetness, " let me ask 
 you some things, dear." 
 
 Lee always seemed another man when talk- 
 ing to Victoria. The stubborn lines of his 
 features softened as he looked at her now. 
 
 " Of course, Victoria," he answered ; " ask 
 me anything." 
 
 " Lee, you say you love Janet ? "
 
 Red Blood and Blue 167 
 
 " I do, Victoria." 
 
 " And that you wish to marry her ? " 
 
 " Yes ; but that must be left to her and to 
 me. I cannot be bullied." 
 
 "We all know that, Lee; but that is not 
 the real question now." 
 
 James York Torrance stood eying the two 
 in amazement and growing impatience. 
 
 " Victoria ! " he expostulated, in a stronger 
 voice than he had yet employed. " What are 
 you thinking of, child ? Come with me." 
 
 It was as if Victoria spoke to him as the 
 child. " Yes, father," she replied with a sooth- 
 ing patience ; " in a moment." 
 
 Then she turned again to her brother. " Do 
 not think of yourself now, Lee," she urged. 
 " Think of all of us. Think of the crime and 
 sorrow that may follow your refusal now. 
 Think of me, Lee ; and, above all, think of 
 Janet." 
 
 " Of you ! Of Janet ! Good Lord, Victoria, 
 you surely don't ask me to give in to this 
 outrageous demand of Captain Halliburton's ? " 
 
 "It is best, Lee. Captain Halliburton is 
 hot-headed and hasty, but he is influenced by 
 his knowledge of public opinion in such things, 
 and he is acting for Janet's interest among
 
 1 68 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 those who are her world. In that sense he is 
 right, Lee ; and Janet can never forget the 
 wound you give her if your first consideration 
 is not her good name, but your own pride. 
 You do not love her truly, and you should 
 never marry her at all, if you cannot make 
 such a sacrifice for her." 
 
 James York Torrance, his lips twitching 
 and little flecks of froth at the corners of his 
 mouth, took an impetuous step forward, with 
 hand raised shoulder-high in enforcement of 
 his words. 
 
 " What nonsense is all this ? " he cried, his 
 voice breaking into a falsetto in its unwonted 
 ascent. " Victoria, I am astounded. Lee, con- 
 duct your sister at once from the room. Mr. 
 Outcault," wheeling upon him, " go to Captain 
 Halliburton and tell him, with the compliments 
 of Mr. Lee Torrance, that it is impossible to 
 hold any communication with him on the sub- 
 ject of his proposition ; and tell him, with the 
 compliments of Mr. James York Torrance, that 
 as long as there is a drop of Torrance blood 
 at The Mounds, such insolence as his will be 
 resented and the honor of the family will be 
 at all times properly defended." 
 
 Outcault, upon whom nothing had been lost,
 
 Red Blood and Blue 169 
 
 saw the influence of Victoria over her brother, 
 and saw that he could still count on that influ- 
 ence. He turned from the father to the son 
 and addressed him. 
 
 " May I not take Mr. Lee Torrance's answer 
 from his own lips ? " Outcault said. 
 
 "Yes," Victoria responded, catching Lee's 
 hand. 
 
 "Victoria Torrance! My daughter!" the 
 old man's words were hardly above a husky 
 whisper, his chin quivering, his face blacken- 
 ing. " I command you to remember that / 
 have given Captain Halliburton his answer ! " 
 
 " Yes, father," Victoria replied gently. 
 
 Then she slipped her arm over Lee's shoul- 
 der and lifted her pleading face and wet eyes 
 to his. " Give him your answer, Lee," she 
 implored. " And be sure, dear, for my sake, 
 for Janet's sake, give him the answer of a 
 man." 
 
 There was an inarticulate sound from the 
 hoarse throat of James York Torrance, but 
 no one was looking toward him now. Lee's 
 chest heaved once ; he dashed his hand across 
 his eyes, which filled suddenly with tears. He 
 stooped abruptly and kissed the brow of his 
 sister.
 
 1 70 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " I will be the man you want me to be, 
 Victoria," he cried. " God knows you are the 
 only one in this house who ever believed me 
 a man, or treated me as one. Mr. Outcault, 
 please inform Captain Halliburton that I assent 
 to his arrangements, and that I shall follow 
 you at once." 
 
 Victoria, suppressing a sob, threw her arms 
 around him. " I am proud of you, Lee ! " she 
 murmured. 
 
 Then she sprang toward Mr. Torrance, who 
 with uncertain step, weakly steadied by a 
 hand-grasp of a chair, was making his way to 
 the door, his head thrown back and his eyes 
 vacant. " Oh, father ! " she said as a mother 
 might speak to the child she had hurt, " do not 
 look so. Come," taking his arm in both her 
 hands, as was her habit, " and let me explain ; 
 let me " 
 
 He shook her off; then paused for an in- 
 stant in the doorway. " Never call me father 
 again," he ordered. " Both of you have dis- 
 honored your name. There is nothing be- 
 tween either of you and me in the future." 
 
 He turned his back on them and walked 
 slowly across the hall. Victoria, gazing after 
 him, was speechless and white with an agony
 
 Red Blood and Blue 171 
 
 that had come to her with the unexpectedness 
 of a dagger-thrust. As he disappeared in the 
 opposite room she threw her hand out falter- 
 ingly for support, and with a moan was caught 
 in Lee's arms. Outcault, grinding under his 
 breath an outcry against the very name of 
 James York Torrance, was already out of the 
 house, on his way to Cap'n Pow Halliburton.
 
 172 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 XIV 
 
 LEE led Victoria to the open hall doors, where 
 the breeze was stirring. " Are you ill ? " he 
 asked anxiously. 
 
 " No ; I was a little dizzy for a second, but 
 I am over it now. Oh, Lee, I must go to 
 father ! " 
 
 "And I shall be here, or in my room, for ten 
 minutes yet, if you should want me." 
 
 She pressed his hand, and then hurried 
 back through the hall, through the room in 
 which James York Torrance had disappeared, 
 through the next, into the back hall, and up 
 the stairs there, until, when she reached his 
 own room she was panting and running. 
 
 A light shone through the transom ; she 
 turned the knob ; the door was locked. 
 
 "Father! Oh, father, please let me in!" 
 Her words were tense with indefinite alarm. 
 
 The reply came, cold and curt. She had 
 never heard her father speak to her in that 
 way. " I am busy," he said ; " I cannot be 
 disturbed."
 
 Red Blood and Blue 173 
 
 She stood motionless and blanched for more 
 than a minute. Then she shrank away, along 
 the upper hall, as if she knew not whither. 
 She saw Lee coming out of his room, and 
 stopped as one half dreaming. 
 
 " Oh ! " she said, " are you going ? " 
 
 " Yes. Is there anything I can do for you 
 first?" 
 
 She spoke more like herself. " Wait down- 
 stairs for me a moment." 
 
 When she joined him she had on a hat and a 
 light wrap. 
 
 "Why, where are you going, Victoria?" he 
 asked in surprise. 
 
 " With you." 
 
 " With me ? Not not to " 
 
 " To your wedding. Did you think I should 
 not be at your wedding ? " with a little smile. 
 
 He blushed deeply, his sober face then light- 
 ing in a pleased, boyish laugh. " You are a 
 trump, Victoria ! You always were ! But wait 
 until I can hitch up something to drive you 
 over in." 
 
 " No, no ! " she objected. " I 'd rather walk. 
 It is not far and the night is so beautiful. Be- 
 sides, I want to talk." 
 
 They went arm and arm down Torrance
 
 174 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 Avenue, and then through the woodland lane 
 to the Oldbury pike, and on to Cap'n Pow's, a 
 walk of perhaps twenty minutes. 
 
 Outcault met them at Cap'n Pow's gate. 
 
 " Mr. Torrance," he said, " it occurred to 
 me, after I left you, that since you have shown 
 your willingness to defer to Captain Hallibur- 
 ton's wishes regarding this marriage there is 
 no reason why, if you like, the ceremony shall 
 not be postponed for a few days and be ob- 
 served in a more formal and public manner. 
 If it is your preference, Captain Halliburton 
 shall consent to this, sir." 
 
 " I thank you, Mr. Outcault," Lee answered, 
 without the least constraint ; " but it is really 
 my preference now that it shall go on to-night, 
 just as Captain Halliburton has planned." 
 
 It was a very simple wedding, and a very 
 singular wedding for a Torrance. But the 
 groom seemed to see nothing of it except the 
 bride ; and as Victoria watched his eager face, 
 so much younger than his years, she felt that 
 for the time, at least, he was happy. 
 
 There were a few minutes after the cere- 
 mony when Janet, ever afterward worshipful 
 of Victoria, was in Victoria's arms, when little 
 was said between them, but that little for life,
 
 Red Blood and Blue 175 
 
 and not to be wasted upon masculine ears. 
 Then it was that Cap'n Pow was stamping 
 about on the veranda, sadly mutilating his 
 beard and his mother-tongue in his torrential 
 efforts to apologize to Lee for any injustice 
 to him that Cap'n Pow's action might have 
 implied. Outcault, whom everybody had for- 
 gotten, appeared when Victoria came out, to 
 return to The Mounds. 
 
 "Are you going, Victoria?" Lee asked. 
 " Wait until I speak to Janet and but per- 
 haps Mr. Outcault will be good enough to see 
 you home ? " 
 
 " I was just about to request that privilege," 
 Outcault avowed. 
 
 Victoria said good-night and walked away 
 with Outcault. Neither spoke until they 
 reached the gate, between which and the house 
 there was a stretch of fifty yards of trees and 
 shrubbery. Victoria having passed through 
 the gate which Outcault held open for her, 
 paused and said, as one who knew her mind : 
 
 " Mr. Outcault, it will not be necessary for 
 you to accompany me. The walk is short and 
 the night almost like day." 
 
 " Yes but indeed, it will not be the 
 least trouble, and "
 
 176 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " I prefer to go alone." 
 
 There was no mistaking that. She turned 
 to leave, and Outcault did not speak again 
 until he had closed the gate deliberately be- 
 hind them. 
 
 " One moment, Miss Torrance," he called. 
 " I have ordered the rockaway, and it will be 
 ready in a few seconds." 
 
 She stopped again, but her tone was no less 
 positive. " Thank you, but I shall not need it." 
 
 " Old Jasper will drive you over. You shall 
 be alone," he assured her, without restraining 
 a slight smile. 
 
 "You are very kind," uncompromisingly; 
 " but I shall not wait." 
 
 She started on again ; but Outcault started, 
 too. 
 
 " I shall not permit this, Miss Torrance," he 
 declared, in a stronger voice. " This is Satur- 
 day night, and you may meet drunken rowdies 
 from town at any moment. If you will not 
 wait for the rockaway, I shall follow you." 
 
 She halted again abruptly. "Very well," 
 she said, " I will wait." 
 
 "It will not be long. I hear it coming 
 now." 
 
 She made no reply, but stood, adjusting the
 
 Red Blood and Blue 177 
 
 wrap about her throat, without looking at 
 him. 
 
 He was silent, also, until the rockaway had 
 almost reached them. 
 
 " It is immaterial, doubtless displeasing, to 
 you," he then said, "but I please myself in 
 recalling, Miss Torrance, that your conduct 
 to-night was beautiful and noble." 
 
 She did not answer. There was little oppor- 
 tunity to do so, if she meant to, before the 
 rockaway came up. Outcault helped her in. 
 
 "Drive Miss Torrance to The Mounds," 
 he ordered Jasper. Then he lifted his hat 
 silently to the girl 
 
 He could see that she bent her head a little. 
 "Good-night, Mr. Outcault," he heard as the 
 rockaway moved off. But he could not tell 
 whether there was, in the way she said it, the 
 least indication of any unbending. 
 
 12
 
 178 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 XV 
 
 VICTORIA, on reaching home, went immediately 
 to her father's door again. 
 
 The light was still shining through the open 
 transom, and through that also she could hear 
 the ticking of the clock and the scratching of 
 a pen. 
 
 She raised her hand to knock, but her heart 
 failed her, and she withdrew quietly and went 
 to her own room. 
 
 It was hours before she could sleep; and 
 when she awoke next day it was long after 
 her usual breakfast time. Before she had 
 finished dressing Miss Juliana came in. Miss 
 Juliana never did that except on rare and, in 
 her opinion, important occasions. Her sub- 
 dued but palpable excitement told Victoria at 
 once that her cousin regarded this as an 
 important occasion. 
 
 It was more important than Victoria had 
 suspected. Her father had left that morning 
 on a long journey. It was something unusual 
 for him to pass a night away from home. He
 
 Red Blood and Blue 179 
 
 seldom went as far as Mavistoc, and only once 
 since the war had he gone as far as Nashville. 
 But now he had set out for Memphis, in the 
 extreme western part of the State, and his 
 absence would be not only for days, but in- 
 definite, as well as Miss Juliana could tell. 
 He had even taken Bev with him ; and he had 
 not done such a thing as that since he had 
 made his memorable visit to Virginia, away 
 back in the fifties. 
 
 Victoria was far more deeply affected by this 
 news than she allowed her cousin to see. Her 
 father, she learned by questioning Miss Juliana, 
 had left early and would permit Miss Juliana 
 to awaken only Clara to bid him good-bye. 
 He had refused peremptorily to let Victoria be 
 called, and as for Lee, his name had not been 
 mentioned. Besides, Lee, Miss Juliana ob- 
 served with a contemptuous little fling of her 
 head, had slept away from home again. Where- 
 upon Victoria told Miss Juliana of Lee's mar- 
 riage, sending her to bed for the rest of the 
 day, horrified not only at the informality of 
 the ceremony, but that a Torrance should wed 
 a Rearden at all. 
 
 Victoria, restless, impatient, fearing she 
 knew not what, was at the post-office on the
 
 180 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 distribution of every mail. On the third day 
 after her father's departure a letter from him 
 came for Miss Juliana. It was very brief, 
 simply notifying her of his arrival at Memphis 
 and promising to inform her of his future move- 
 ments. About a week later Victoria's visits to 
 the post-office were rewarded with two other 
 letters in his handwriting, one addressed to 
 her and the other to Miss Juliana. 
 
 She hurried away, her first impulse being to 
 read her letter as she drove home. But now 
 that she had that which she had awaited so 
 anxiously she postponed even opening it. She 
 sat bolt upright as she sped out Torrance 
 Avenue, her eyes fixed ahead and not once 
 conscious of the people she met, among whom 
 was Andrew Outcault, who had not seen her 
 since the night of the wedding. 
 
 Reaching home, Victoria sought Miss Juliana, 
 and giving her the letter addressed to her, 
 went to the window and stood looking out 
 while Miss Juliana was finding and adjusting 
 her spectacles. 
 
 " Come here, Victoria," Miss Juliana finally 
 called, " and read this to me. I never could 
 read James York's writing well, and he seems 
 to have got into a country where there is no 
 ink fit to write with,"
 
 Red Blood and Blue 181 
 
 Victoria went up to Miss Juliana and taking 
 the letter, again turned to the window, reading 
 aloud : 
 
 LORCH, TENN., September 7. 
 
 DEAR JULIANA : I have occupied my time, since 
 I wrote you from Memphis, in looking over the coun- 
 try, it being my purpose to lease a farm in this re- 
 gion, where it is my expectation to reside in future. 
 I think I have about determined upon the selection 
 of a place near this village, and it is probable that I 
 shall close the contract in a day or two. As you 
 may be aware, the soil here is very fertile, being richly 
 adapted to the culture of cotton, the only species of 
 agriculture which I feel qualified to pursue. It is 
 far superior to our Middle Tennessee lands for the 
 production of this staple, and I am sanguine that here 
 I may ultimately be successful in repairing somewhat 
 my fortunes. Bev, upon whom I have always relied 
 so greatly, will remain with me, and I count much 
 upon his experience, efficiency, and fidelity. 
 
 It will not be necessary for me to return to The 
 Mounds. The crop there is now virtually made, and 
 I have already satisfactory arrangements in view for 
 disposing of it in the field. 
 
 I assume that you will wish to remain on at The 
 Mounds on the same conditions as heretofore, and I 
 am sure that it will be for the good of the children 
 that you should do so. Under no circumstances are
 
 1 82 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 you, or any of the family, to follow me here, until 
 notified by me of my readiness to receive you. 
 
 I shall write you more fully of my plans shortly, 
 and send you a list of my personal effects which I 
 shall request you to forward to me. 
 
 With assurances to you of the continuance, under 
 Providence, of the health which I enjoyed when I 
 last saw you, and with earnest wishes for your own 
 bodily welfare, I am, 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 JAMES YORK TORRANCE. 
 To Miss JULIANA FORDYCE TORRANCE, 
 " The Mounds." 
 
 Victoria, deaf to her cousin's exclamations of 
 astonishment and sighs of pity for " poor James 
 York," dropped the letter in Miss Juliana's lap 
 and walked from the room. Behind her own 
 closed door she took out her letter, and, kissing 
 it passionately, tore it open. 
 
 LORCH, TENN., September 7. 
 
 VICTORIA : In leaving The Mounds permanently, 
 the proper safe-guarding of your interests demands 
 that I resign the trusteeship of your estate, in order 
 that it may be administered by some one who can 
 give it the attention of his personal presence. I 
 shall at an early day communicate with my attorneys 
 at Feme Run, with this end in view. The court will
 
 Red Blood and Blue 1 83 
 
 appoint another trustee, a step which I am confident 
 will be signally to your advantage, as at best I am but 
 an indifferent business man, and any successor can 
 hardly fail to prove for your advantage. In any event, 
 the trust will continue for only a year longer, as at 
 the age of twenty-five, under the provisions of your 
 mother's will, you are to come into the possession of 
 your property absolutely. 
 
 Your Cousin Juliana will, I presume, desire to con- 
 tinue living at The Mounds as now, and her income 
 is ample to permit her to maintain her existing rela- 
 tions to the household as long as it is agreeable to 
 yourself and her that she should do so. 
 
 I hope that, for the present at least, Clara may also 
 find a home at The Mounds. It is my intention to 
 make her a regular allowance, sufficient to prevent 
 her being in any degree a burden upon any one. 
 
 As soon as the new trustee is appointed I will make 
 a final settlement with him of all accounts appertain- 
 ing to your estate, including the liquidation of the 
 balance due from myself for this year's rent of The 
 Mounds. 
 
 All affairs between us can be satisfactorily wound 
 up, on the installation of the new trustee, without the 
 necessity, or the advisability, of any further personal 
 interview whatsoever between you and myself. 
 
 JAMES YORK TORRANCE. 
 
 To Miss VICTORIA TORRANCE, 
 "The Mounds."
 
 1 84 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 Victoria sat long, staring vacantly at the 
 closely written pages that had fallen to her lap. 
 At last her dry eyes filled, and sobs shook her 
 as she buried her face in her hands. But she 
 quickly rebelled against this gust of tears, and 
 sitting erect again, carefully read the letter a 
 second time. Then, rising, she went out and 
 issued an order to a stable boy; after which, 
 going to Miss Juliana, she amazed that lady by 
 the announcement : 
 
 " Cousin Juliana, I am going to start at once 
 for that place, Lorch."
 
 Red Blood and Blue 185 
 
 XVI 
 
 was on her way to Mavistoc in an hour, 
 notwithstanding Miss Juliana's shocked sense 
 of propriety, her wounded family dignity, her 
 fluttering fears, her awed protests against dis- 
 obeying James York's express injunctions, and 
 her faint-hearted threats, for appearance's sake 
 at least, to accompany Victoria to Lorch. 
 
 By repeatedly urging her driver to a faster 
 speed than the customary jog of the family span 
 Victoria reached Mavistoc in time to take the 
 night train for Nashville. Next day she had 
 left behind her the rolling beauty of Middle 
 Tennessee and was steaming through the level 
 fields, the big forests, and the riotous brake 
 that marked her approach to the great river 
 of the continent. She did not leave the train 
 at the railroad junction where it was neces- 
 sary to change cars for Lorch, having learned 
 that she would thus reach the little town at 
 midnight, and believing that there would be 
 small chance of finding her father until morn- 
 ing. She therefore decided to go on to Mem"
 
 1 86 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 phis, where she spent the night in a comfortable 
 hotel, returning to the junction by the early 
 train, and reaching Lorch by noon. 
 
 It was a desolate-looking village in the mud. 
 There were narrow sidewalks of plank on the 
 main thoroughfare, along which were scattered 
 the houses, principally one-story frame cot- 
 tages, many of which had never been painted, 
 in dingy contrast to the more pretentious struc- 
 tures that were coated in conspicuous hues 
 of ready-mixed lead, with their white-washed 
 fences and lime-desecrated tree-trunks. 
 
 Victoria felt herself fortunate in not having 
 to remain long at the ramshackle hotel, full of 
 flies and dogs, and frequented, she saw at a 
 glance, by men who were coatless and in some 
 instances shoeless. It was not hard to trace 
 her father. Strangers of such distinguished 
 appearance were rare in Lorch, and were not 
 strangers long. It was plain that James York 
 Torrance had impressed and interested Lorch ; 
 and Victoria could have probably ascertained 
 where he was from any citizen of whom she 
 might have made inquiry. 
 
 The citizen of whom she did make inquiry 
 was the landlord. Yes, Mr. Torrance had 
 stopped at the hotel for several days ; but he.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 187 
 
 had gone out into the country now. He had 
 rented the place of Cephas Dismukes and had 
 already moved in. It was about five miles out, 
 but there was a tolerably good road. His old 
 nigger was in town that very morning. Had 
 seen him not an hour before. Of course he 
 could be found, and he would be, dead or alive, 
 if he had not started back yet. The lady just 
 wait a few minutes. 
 
 And the landlord, delegating his son to ex- 
 plore one end of the street, himself sauntered 
 off down the other; the result being that Bev, 
 breathless, white-eyed, snuffling and almost 
 shouting, was soon blessing God in the pres- 
 ence of Victoria. 
 
 " You sutny is sent by de will er de Lawd, 
 Miss Victoria; you sutny is ! Da's how come 
 I 's in dis yere town to-day, caze I done writ 
 you a letter an' come in fer to put it in de pos'- 
 awfice. I ain't sayin' zackly dat I writ it my- 
 se'f. De doctor, he done de writin' but I gin 
 him de name an' de caution, an' he fix up de 
 letter, unbeknownst to Marse Jeems York." 
 
 " The doctor ! What doctor ? " asked Vic- 
 toria in sudden alarm. " Is any one is 
 father ill?" 
 
 " No 'm ; he ain't ill, Miss Victoria. Tain't
 
 1 88 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 dat bad. Marse Jeems York des ailin' sorter. 
 He ain't got vatcinated to dis yere country yit. 
 An' I don't blame him, needer. I ain't feelin' 
 so peart myse'f. Me an' de doctor, we des 
 'lowed 't would n't be so lonesome fer Marse 
 Jeems York ef he had somer de home folks to 
 sorter tek keer him a while. Da 's how come 
 we fix up de letter." 
 
 Victoria was not long in getting away from 
 Lorch. Bev had driven to town in a " carryall," 
 and she was soon on the seat beside him, her 
 trunk in the bed of the vehicle and the mule 
 striking out homeward, Bev was pleased to 
 remark, " at a heap livelier clip dan all de 
 hollerin' an' de whuppin' could git outn de var- 
 mint gwine de yuther way." 
 
 The town left behind, the road, which was a 
 corduroy three or four feet higher than the 
 surface of the country it traversed, was cut 
 through a forest of gigantic trees and thick un- 
 dergrowth, whose extent seemed almost limit- 
 less. The soil, where it was visible, was dark 
 and moist, and the streams were sluggish 
 and murky. After what seemed to Victoria 
 miles and miles of this wood had been pene- 
 trated, with never a sign of human life any- 
 where, the road ran out into a clearing bounded
 
 Red Blood and Blue 189 
 
 only by the horizon. The black lands stretched 
 away for leagues, the monotony of the cotton- 
 fields varied only by the monotony of the corn- 
 fields, with here and there a cluster of trees 
 about an unpretentious farmhouse. The sun, 
 hanging low, shot its rays straight along the 
 burnished corn-tops, while it extended and illu- 
 minated with soft opalescence the vague west- 
 ern sky-line. Something of its vagueness and 
 calm came into Victoria's eyes as she looked 
 over those whispering corn-tops into the fath- 
 omless lights of the sunset, and there was a touch 
 of awe even on the face of Bev as he turned it 
 for a little to the far circle where the clouds 
 and the plain mingled in a deepening haze. 
 
 " Over yander," he explained, with a wave 
 of his whip, " da 's whar dey says de Mis'sippi 
 is at. An' ef she 's over yander," he added, 
 giving the mule his attention again, " I reckon 
 she '11 stay over yander ; caze water got to run 
 down-hill ef it runs, an' it don't look lak dey 's 
 any down-hill er up-hill arry one over dere." 
 
 A few minutes later he pointed the whip 
 toward a clump of trees, over which was a 
 spiral of wood smoke, a quarter of a mile off 
 the road. 
 
 " Da 's whar we gwine," he said. " All dis
 
 190 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 Ian' twixt dis an' dat smoke is whut me an* 
 Marse Jeems York is a-figgerin' to put in cot- 
 ton nex' spring. You ain't never seed no cot- 
 ton Ian' lak dis, back whar we come f'om," 
 turning off into a lane. " But when you say 
 Ian' da's all you gwiner say. I done toF 
 Marse Jeems York dat. Dey is some toler'ble 
 "good mules an' a gin dat '11 do atter it 's sharp- 
 ened, but de house fer de white folks, it ain't 
 no better 'n our hen-'ouse at home, an' de fur- 
 nicher well, suh, de furnicher is des pine- 
 blank scan'lous. We would n't no mo 'n 'lowed 
 sich bedstids an' cheers in our nigger cabins at 
 home 'fo' de war." 
 
 As they drove up to the house Victoria's 
 heart sank. There was an air of neglect and 
 bareness over the place. The building was 
 a two-story frame, the four rooms above and 
 below divided by a narrow hall, a one-story L 
 extending at the rear. It was bald as to cor- 
 nices; it was raised on brick piles two feet 
 from the ground, the space beneath the floor 
 having evidently been further hollowed out 
 by fowls and hogs; the chimneys of brick, on 
 the outside of each end of the house, were 
 cracked and tottering. In color the structure 
 was of the dull drab of the rotting pulp with
 
 Red Blood and Blue 191 
 
 which time and weather coat unpainted planed 
 poplar. Slats were missing from the warped 
 shutters, and in one of the windows a wood- 
 cut of a candidate for sheriff took the place 
 of a shattered pane. The bark of the trees 
 in the yard had been bitten away by stock, 
 and lower down the boles had been plastered 
 with mud by hogs from their wallow. The 
 yard itself, except where hard and smooth 
 near the sagging-roofed log kitchen, was over- 
 grown with plantain. There was a worm-fence 
 of rails, in the corners of which ironweed and 
 mullein crowded shoulder-high. 
 
 The door opened, and a kindly faced woman, 
 in a dingy calico dress, and with a clay pipe in 
 her mouth, stood looking out. 
 
 "Da's Mis' Dismukes," Bev volunteered. 
 " De Dismukeses ain't moved away yit." 
 
 Victoria sprang from the wagon and hurried 
 in, while Bev busied himself with her trunk. 
 Mrs. Dismukes, to whom Victoria introduced 
 herself and briefly explained that she had 
 come to visit her father, manifested no sur- 
 prise. Her manner would not have been dif- 
 ferent if Victoria had been a member of the 
 household returning after an absence of a few 
 hours, She did not offer her hand, nor make
 
 192 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 any other demonstration of welcome, though 
 there was nothing unfriendly in the eter- 
 nal tranquillity of her face and the equable 
 stolidity of her bearing. She took the pipe 
 from her mouth and led the way into the best 
 room, which, with its bare floor and curtain- 
 less windows was furnished with a few split- 
 bottomed chairs; a high bed, covered with a 
 bright " log-cabin " quilt ; a pine table sup- 
 porting a plain glass kerosene lamp, that stood 
 on a worsted mat ; at one end of the tall mantel 
 a tea-canister, which served as a tobacco jar ; 
 at the other end a colored glass stand which 
 was the depository of odd packages of garden 
 seed, buttons, bits of shell, a buckeye, and an 
 Easter egg ; while on the centre of the mantel 
 was a wooden clock, in the crevices of which 
 were stuck receipts and the few letters that had 
 come to the Dismukes family for a generation. 
 The pictures embraced a chromo of a cut 
 watermelon and a bowl of peaches ; a lady in 
 white furs, blue velvet, and red hair present- 
 ing, with the compliments of a dry-goods es- 
 tablishment, a calendar several years out of 
 date ; and a purple print on a green poster- 
 sheet of Wyatt and Wade's celebrated Spanish 
 jack, Grenada Grandee,
 
 Red Blood and Blue 193 
 
 "Come in and set down," was Mrs. Dis- 
 mukes' invitation, as she herself settled in a 
 chair apparently for the rest of the day. " You 
 kin rest yo' things on the bed there." 
 
 Victoria compromised with the situation to 
 the extent of seating herself for a moment on 
 the edge of a chair. 
 
 " But my father : may I not see him ? How 
 is he ? " she asked. 
 
 " He 's toler'ble, I reckon," Mrs. Dismukes 
 replied calmly. 
 
 " I wish to go to him. Please show me 
 the way at once." 
 
 " Yes 'm," without moving. " But I don't 
 reckon he 'd know you now ; he 's kinder 
 outn his head this evenin'." 
 
 " Out of his head ! " Victoria was on her 
 feet instantly, her voice wrung. " I did not 
 know he was so ill. No one told me. Take 
 me to him immediately ! " 
 
 " Yes 'm. He did n't git flighty till this 
 evenin', and he 'd kinder dozed off when I 
 left him just now. You must take keer and 
 not wake him." 
 
 She got up slowly and laid her pipe on the 
 mantel. 
 
 " Come along o' me," she said in the same 
 13
 
 194 R d Blood and Blue 
 
 mild monotone in which she had spoken 
 throughout. 
 
 Victoria followed her into the hall, up the 
 stairs, into a room over the one she had just 
 left. The blinds were half shut and there was 
 a faint odor of drugs in the close air. Mrs. 
 Dismukes approached the bed softly, Victoria 
 slipping ahead of her. 
 
 "He is still asleep," whispered the older 
 woman. " Don't make no noise." 
 
 Victoria knelt beside the bed and bent 
 over the sleeper. There was little change 
 in the thin face since she had seen it last, 
 except that it was perhaps thinner and was 
 flushed with fever. The fine, white hair lay 
 in disorder against the pillow, and as her 
 anxious eyes drew nearer she could see the 
 throb of the pulse under the attenuated skin 
 of the temple. There was a tightness across 
 her throat and a fulness in her eyes, and she 
 felt a yearning impulse to clasp him to her, 
 but she drew back even before Mrs. Dis- 
 mukes' warning hand fell on her shoulder. 
 She gazed at her father for a full minute, 
 motionless, then mustering all her self-control, 
 she rose and beckoned Mrs. Dismukes into 
 the hall.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 195 
 
 "When was the doctor here?" she de- 
 manded. 
 
 " This raornin', early." 
 
 " When will he return ? " 
 
 " He said maybe to-night, maybe to-morrow." 
 
 " My father is worse. He was not delirious 
 until this afternoon, you have told me. The 
 doctor must be sent for at once." 
 
 " There wan't nobody to send, 'cep'n Cephas ; 
 but Cephas is too busy to-day." 
 
 " Is that Cephas ? " 
 
 Victoria, looking through a window, pointed 
 to a man in his shirt-sleeves sitting on the 
 woodpile, his legs crossed, his elbow on his 
 knee, his chin in his hand, his foot wagging 
 slowly and regularly. It was the same figure, 
 the same posture, the same wagging foot she 
 had noticed when she first entered the yard. 
 
 " Yes," answered Mrs. Dismukes, " that 's 
 Cephas." 
 
 Victoria ran downstairs and sent Bev for 
 the doctor. Hurrying back to the sick room, 
 she found Mrs. Dismukes there, and not un- 
 willing to be relieved. 
 
 "I'll go put on supper," that lady said, 
 moving toward the door. " Cephas will be 
 trompin' roun' on the back po'ch d'rec'ly and
 
 196 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 scattin' the cat he allus does that away 
 when he has to wait for supper and it 
 might wake up yo' pa." 
 
 Victoria busied herself quietly, making what 
 changes in the room she could for comfort and 
 appearance ; and when her father began toss- 
 ing and muttering she went to him, and sitting 
 on the side of the bed, gently touched his fore- 
 head and wrists with wet cloths. He was 
 rambling, in his feverish sleep, of the old days 
 when Backwater was a principality and he was 
 the master. 
 
 Suddenly his eyes opened and rested on 
 Victoria. Her heart leaped and her breath 
 stopped as she leaned forward and waited 
 for some sign of recognition. 
 
 " Father," she murmured, timidly taking his 
 hand, " don't you know me?" 
 
 " Mr. Swango," he replied, with measured 
 courtesy, " it is impossible for me to pay you 
 the balance of my indebtedness to you just 
 yet. I have not been as fortunate in my farm- 
 ing operations as I had hoped. But I will pay 
 you every dollar before I die. You have my 
 word for that, sir. What more can you ask ? " 
 
 Victoria bent nearer with a short sob. " Oh, 
 father, it is I Victoria your own Victoria."
 
 Red Blood and Blue 197 
 
 He waved his hand imperiously and ordered 
 sharply, " Stop ! Juliana, you must understand 
 me once for all. Never speak that name to 
 me again. She is not my Victoria. She has 
 scorned my wishes ; she has defied my au- 
 thority. She has led her brother into filial 
 disobedience and into cowardly dishonor. She 
 has done what no Torrance before has ever 
 done made the name a byword and a re- 
 proach. She has exiled her own father from 
 the land of his birth and of his shame. I 
 leave The Mounds at once. No ; you shall 
 not wake her. I will not see her. I will never 
 see her again. I am going to begin life over, 
 in another part of the State. I am not too 
 old yet to right myself with the world Bev 
 and I together and I will not die until I 
 do it. I have not been able to do much here, 
 but there is a better chance in West Ten- 
 nessee. Bev will tell you that. And no one 
 shall say that I remained at The Mounds, 
 even apparently on the bounty of a daughter 
 who has ceased to be a daughter. Good-bye, 
 Juliana. Here is some money for Clara. See 
 that she pays her board regularly, as long as 
 she lives at The Mounds." 
 
 Victoria, as he spoke, had shrunk down until
 
 198 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 her knees slipped to the floor, but after an 
 involuntary exclamation of protest and appeal, 
 no sound escaped her lips and only an 
 occasional convulsive tremor betrayed her 
 torture. 
 
 The wandering mind turned to other things : 
 to the cold well at Backwater ; to the prepa- 
 rations for a Christmas dinner in the old 
 times, and various orders to the negroes of the 
 kitchen and the dining-room ; to the rich cotton 
 lands around Lorch and consultation with Bev 
 over plans for next year's crop. 
 
 Then Victoria rose, and putting aside all 
 thoughts of self, became at once the calm, 
 resourceful nurse, whose presence brought an 
 instantaneous light of recognition and con- 
 fidence to the face of the doctor as he entered 
 the room.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 199 
 
 XVII 
 
 FOR forty-eight hours Victoria's vigil by the 
 bedside was incessant, except for a little sleep 
 which she snatched, within call, when her 
 place was taken by Mrs. Dismukes or Bev. 
 Nothing that the most faithful ministration 
 could do for her father was left undone. Dr. 
 Browder came and went, hard-worked, patient, 
 cheerful, and always the more cheerful on 
 leaving Victoria. 
 
 " Now that your father has such a nurse," 
 he told her, " I have half a dozen patients who 
 need me more than he does." 
 
 Victoria and the old doctor were sick- 
 room friends at once, each relying without 
 reserve on the other. The experienced practi- 
 tioner knew the value of such an assistant as 
 soon as he saw her, and she was hardly less 
 prompt in detecting the worth of the man and 
 the physician, and in trusting both implicitly. 
 
 When Dr. Browder came on the afternoon 
 of the second day after her arrival her father 
 was sleeping. The doctor remained in the
 
 2oo Red Blood and Blue 
 
 room but a minute, and as Victoria followed 
 him into the hall she was already aglow over 
 the good news which she read in his face. 
 
 " The fever is broken," he said, as he closed 
 the door upon the sleeper ; " when he wakes 
 his mind will be clear." 
 
 A glad light sprang into her eyes. " I can- 
 not tell you how grateful I am to you, doctor," 
 she answered, pressing his hand. 
 
 " Your father owes more to you than to 
 anybody else. But he has not recognized you 
 yet. He does not know you are here. You 
 must not let him discover you too suddenly. 
 Better leave it to me, and I '11 prepare him for 
 it at the proper time." 
 
 Her eyes darkened with pain and doubt. 
 She had thought of this often as she sat by her 
 father in his unconsciousness. What should 
 she do when his reason returned ? What 
 would be the effect of her presence upon him ? 
 Should she place herself within the possibility 
 of recognition at all; at least, while he was 
 ill? If she was to infer his feeling toward 
 her by his action that last night at The 
 Mounds, by his departure, by his letter, by 
 his delirious wanderings, would it be wise to 
 reveal herself to him here now, if ever ?
 
 Red Blood and Blue 201 
 
 "I am afraid, doctor," she said, after a 
 moment of hesitation, " it is best that he 
 should not know, for the present, that I am 
 here : because " 
 
 It came to her suddenly that she would take 
 this kindly and sensible old man partially into 
 her confidence and throw herself upon his 
 counsel. So she explained to him enough of 
 what had occurred to indicate the existing 
 relations between herself and her father, touch- 
 ing necessarily, but briefly, upon his insulated 
 life, sensitive pride, and passionate nature. 
 
 " I think you are right," the doctor said with 
 a constrained sympathy in his tone, after she 
 had finished. " It would be discreet to wait 
 for a day or two, until he is stronger, before 
 showing yourself. Leave it to me and I will 
 judge, as best I can, when and how to act. 
 In the mean time, you can take the rest you 
 need so much." 
 
 She thought little of rest for herself during 
 the next few days. The. mere fact that she 
 was so near and yet must remain out of her 
 father's room, was not conducive to rest. Mrs. 
 Dismukes and Bev, having with some difficulty 
 been impressed with the necessity of keeping 
 the invalid in ignorance of his daughter's
 
 202 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 presence, alternated in attendance upon him ; 
 while Victoria sat in the hall outside, the 
 door slightly ajar that she might hear any 
 sound within, accessible for consultation at 
 any instant, prompt to give direction on every 
 point, tireless in preparing delicacies for a con- 
 valescent appetite and in providing the count- 
 less little comforts which only a woman's love 
 can provide for the helpless. 
 
 Finally, one morning, as the doctor was 
 about entering the sick-room, he answered 
 gently the appeal of her eyes and her anxious 
 inquiry whether he had spoken yet. 
 " Not yet, but I think I may to-day." 
 As he closed the door behind him Victoria, 
 impelled by the desire that possesses one at 
 times to get away, for a little, from some 
 inevitable crisis to postpone, for a little, the 
 knowledge of its issue walked down to the 
 gate, and through it, past the doctor's horse, 
 along the bush-bordered lane. There was some 
 vague relief a rarer air, a lighter foot after 
 a clump of elders had shut the house from 
 view ; and yet she went but a short way 
 beyond the elders before retracing her path 
 until she could again see the house. Thus she 
 strolled slowly back and forth along the lane,
 
 Red Blood and Blue 203 
 
 now anxiously scanning the house, now with 
 the screen of the elders between; her eyes 
 again roaming the monotonous fields around 
 her, and again pretending to search for wild- 
 flowers at her feet. 
 
 At last, after what seemed hours, she saw 
 Dr. Browder standing in the doorway, appar- 
 ently looking for her. She went at once 
 rapidly toward him, her eyes fixed on him as 
 if in fascination. At the gate there was just 
 an instant of seeming desire to lean upon it for 
 support, as she opened it and hastened on to Dr. 
 Browder. Not until she was within a few yards 
 of him did her steps slacken as her supreme 
 ordeal came. But when she had crossed those 
 few yards and stood before the doctor she ap- 
 peared as calm and inscrutable as he, who had 
 trained himself to calmness and inscrutability. 
 
 " Well ? " she asked, waiting. 
 
 The doctor seemed in no haste to answer. 
 " Your father," he finally said, " knows that 
 you are here, and has consented that you re- 
 main with him for the present." 
 
 The face that bloomed before him in swift 
 comprehension and rapture he always after- 
 wards held in his memory as the most beautiful 
 thing that had ever blessed his old eyes.
 
 204 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 She made no sound, except a little cry, which 
 was so low that it was hardly more than audi- 
 ble. She started rapidly into the hall; but 
 she abruptly whirled, and running to the doctor 
 took his hands, and, as her grateful eyes filled 
 suddenly, bowed her head upon his shoulder, 
 breaking into what he would have been at 
 a loss to say was repressed laughter or 
 sobbing. 
 
 In a moment she had recovered herself and 
 was looking him in the face again. 
 
 " I am going now," she said. " But first 
 tell me everything that passed between you 
 and father. I have a right to know." 
 
 " I began by telling your father," he ex- 
 plained, " that I wanted some one of his family 
 to be with him that it would be a benefit to 
 him and an aid to me, which I insisted on. But 
 he would not consent to it ; he would not even 
 discuss it. I then trumped up a story that 
 you had written to me begging to be allowed to 
 come, and I urged him to authorize me to write 
 for you. He not only flatly refused, but added 
 that if I did send for you he would leave the 
 place at once. After a while I played my last 
 card and told him that you had come of your 
 own accord soon after he became ill ; that you
 
 Red Blood and Blue 205 
 
 had been a godsend to both him and me ; that 
 you had been with him throughout his delirium 
 and had done everything that the most devoted 
 nurse could do since, without risking his dis- 
 pleasure by letting him discover your presence. 
 That got him." 
 
 Victoria said she tried to say it in her 
 natural voice: 
 
 " You have managed it beautifully, doctor." 
 
 Then she hastened to her father; and Dr. 
 Browder, leaving the house, muttered indig- 
 nantly : 
 
 " I could n't tell her that the old mummy 
 would not give in until I swore to him that 
 if he did n't he would have her break-down 
 and maybe her death on his hands be-damn 
 to him ! "
 
 206 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 XVIII 
 
 AFTER that the old relations between father 
 and daughter seemed fully restored, and 
 more : for to the old intimacy, rare as it was, 
 there was the new tenderness, oftener sug- 
 gested than expressed, that follows reunion 
 after estrangement; while there was, further, 
 on the part of Victoria, the exultant gratitude 
 for a loved one's rescue from illness, and on 
 the part of Mr. Torrance the tonic reaction of 
 the convalescent. 
 
 They were beautiful autumn days which the 
 two spent together, sitting in Mrs. Dismukes' 
 bare hall, or sometimes, in the early mornings 
 and the evenings, in her best room, with a few 
 sticks of hickory crackling and simmering in 
 the fireplace. Victoria had obtained a buggy 
 at Lorch, and many were the fine afternoons 
 that slipped by as she drove her father be- 
 tween the flat fields and through the great 
 forest, dashed now with gold and scarlet and 
 fragrant with wild grape and muscadine.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 207 
 
 There was no talk between them now of 
 Victoria's return to The Mounds. Once she 
 had told her father that as long as he remained 
 in West Tennessee she intended to remain 
 with him, and he had postponed the discussion 
 of that point to some indefinite day, replying 
 that though it was best for his worldly affairs 
 that he should try at least one crop in this part 
 of the State, there was no necessity for cross- 
 ing any bridges before they were reached. It 
 was as though, content with the present, he 
 had no desire to anticipate the future. Be- 
 yond this the subject had not been mentioned 
 by either; and to this may be added one 
 subject which, though it must have been often 
 in their thoughts, had never been mentioned at 
 all that of Lee Torrance and his marriage. 
 
 Only once, too, had Victoria ventured to 
 remonstrate, tentatively, against his remain- 
 ing, even for a year. In a few months, she 
 reminded him, she would come into full pos- 
 session of The Mounds, with power to dispose 
 of it as she chose ; and it had long been her 
 intention to turn it over to him for the pay- 
 ment of his debts. James York Torrance em- 
 phatically vetoed this proposition. He would 
 no more think of accepting the property of his
 
 208 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 daughter than of anybody else. And even if 
 he would, The Mounds would not bring enough 
 at forced sale to meet his requirements. He 
 had had sufficient experience on that score 
 from the sale of Backwater. Victoria, she 
 was enjoined, was neither to speak of nor to 
 think of such a thing, an injunction which 
 she only partially observed. 
 
 For she was thinking of it one afternoon as 
 she sat in the hall, a bit of needlework in her 
 hand, the balmy air, following the western 
 sun-rays, drifting through the open doors. 
 The time was opportune for thought: her 
 father had gone upstairs for a nap, Mrs. Dis- 
 mukes had ridden off to visit the neighbors, 
 and even the soporific figure of Cephas was 
 nowhere visible in its accustomed haunts. 
 
 So engrossed was she in her reflections that 
 she did not hear a horse gallop up to the gate, 
 nor was she aware of an intruder until, at 
 a rap on the doorcase, she looked up and saw 
 Andrew Outcault standing in the entrance. 
 
 She rose instantly, her color quickening, her 
 shoulders slightly thrown back. 
 
 " Mr. Outcault ! You ! " she cried, the sur- 
 prise of her exclamation hardly exceeding its 
 resentment.
 
 Red Blood nd Blue 209 
 
 To Outcault she seemed by her action more 
 than by her words instinctively to bar his way. 
 
 " I fear I must beg your indulgence, Miss 
 Torrance," he said as he bowed, " but I wish 
 very much to see your father for a few 
 moments, on business of some importance to 
 me," As he spoke he stooped and picked up 
 a pair of scissors that had slipped from her 
 lap when she got up. 
 
 " Thank you," she said, as he restored them 
 to her. " I hope," she added, " you will not 
 think I wish to be rude, but surely, Mr. Out- 
 cault, you must understand that your presence 
 here would be exceedingly displeasing to my 
 father." 
 
 "Yes," with a faint smile, "I presume I do 
 have some understanding of that ; but I have 
 come here to ask an interview which I believe 
 I am entitled to, regardless of any personal 
 disinclination he may have to granting it." 
 
 " Mr. Outcault " she spoke very firmly 
 and deliberately "I must request you not to 
 insist on this. My father has been ill. He 
 has a peculiar temperament, which I am cer- 
 tain would be greatly excited by your appear- 
 ance here. In his interest, at least, I must 
 decline to invite you to remain." 
 
 14
 
 2io Red Blood and Blue 
 
 The words seemed to strike home. Outcault 
 unmistakably flushed. 
 
 "I perhaps you are right," he answered 
 a little unevenly. " I had not thought of that. 
 I will wait till a better time." He bowed and 
 moved to leave. 
 
 She returned his bow. " I am sorry " 
 she murmured. 
 
 He paused suddenly and looked at her 
 again. 
 
 " Do you think, if I should remain in Lorch 
 a week or two, I might make another attempt 
 to see Mr. Torrance? Perhaps if I told you 
 the nature of my business and asked you to 
 use your judgment and select some favorable 
 time to mention it to him an interview might 
 be arranged." 
 
 Victoria hesitated. 
 
 " Of course," she finally answered," if it is 
 so urgent, I shall be willing to do what I can, 
 provided " 
 
 She seemed uncertain how to finish. 
 
 " Provided I am not too unreasonable, I 
 suppose," again with the faint smile. " It is 
 simply this, Miss Torrance : I have come here 
 to see Mr. Torrance in order that I may learn 
 from him the amount he lost through my
 
 Red Blood and Blue 211 
 
 father. I am anxious to repay him all that 
 his business association with my father cost 
 him. It is an obligation which has weighed 
 upon me a long time, and which, now that 
 I am at last able to do so, I wish to re- 
 lieve myself of with as little delay as pos- 
 sible. If you will mention the matter to Mr. 
 Torrance, as soon as you think advisable, and 
 induce him either to give me a short inter- 
 view, or send me, at Lorch, a full statement of 
 all that he paid directly to my father, and of 
 the indebtedness to the other stockholders 
 which he assumed, you will do me a favor 
 which I shall appreciate." 
 
 Victoria's countenance underwent a subtle 
 change as he spoke; but Outcault did not 
 know whether it was to less coldness or merely 
 to deeper thoughtfulness. 
 
 She waited a moment, as if for anything 
 more he might wish to add. Then she 
 said: 
 
 " What you ask me to do seems reasonable. 
 Please sit down, and I will go up and see if 
 father is awake yet. He should know of your 
 visit and its object." 
 
 " Thank you." Outcault bowed and seated 
 himself, as she went up the stairs.
 
 212 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 She soon returned, and as Outcault rose she 
 asked him to keep his seat. 
 
 " Father is still asleep," she explained, re- 
 suming her own chair; " but I am sure he will 
 be up in a few minutes now. If you do not 
 mind waiting a little he may see you this 
 afternoon." 
 
 " I have nothing better to do in this part 
 of the country," sitting again ; " but don't let 
 me impose on you. I fear," glancing at the 
 sewing she had laid aside, " I have interrupted 
 your work." 
 
 She did not seem to think that worth a 
 reply ; but, evidently determined to make con- 
 versation, she inquired : 
 
 "When did you leave Feme Run, Mr. 
 Outcault ? " 
 
 " Day before yesterday. I saw one of your 
 friends in town just before I left Miss Rosalie 
 Kemp." 
 
 " Yes ? And how was Rosalie ? " 
 
 " She was as charming as ever. She told 
 me confidentially, however, that she was pin- 
 ing away on account of your desertion, and 
 that if you did not return soon she intended 
 to start out in the world in search of you. I 
 believe she would have been equal to coming
 
 Red Blood and Blue 213 
 
 with me if she had known that I was about to 
 hunt up Mr. Torrance." 
 
 Victoria smiled. " Did you have any trouble 
 in finding him ? " 
 
 " None at all. The Feme Run paper said 
 he had leased a farm in this part of the State, 
 and Lee told me Lorch was his post-office." 
 
 " Lee writes me that he is very busy now." 
 It was plainly an indication that she was willing 
 to hear Outcault talk of Lee. 
 
 "Yes. He will make his way, I am sure. 
 He has already taken a contract to build a 
 section of our little railroad, and he is think- 
 ing of going in with me next season in the 
 horse-radish business," Outcault added, with 
 a glimmer of a smile in his eyes. 
 
 " And Janet what of her? " 
 
 " Blooming. She and Lee are very happy, 
 and Captain Halliburton seems hardly less 
 happy in watching their happiness. I think 
 they would go to housekeeping themselves but 
 for Captain Halliburton's delight in having 
 them with him." 
 
 " I hope to have Lee and Janet make their 
 home with us at The Mounds before very 
 long." 
 
 " That is natural, but I almost wish you to
 
 214 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 be disappointed, Miss Torrance. If you knew 
 Captain Halliburton as well as I do, what a 
 big heart he has, how essentially a family 
 man he is, and how he has missed the best 
 in the home life that would seem ought to 
 have been his, you would understand what I 
 mean." 
 
 " He is devoted to Janet, is he not ? " 
 " He has always been, more so than to any 
 one else, except perhaps to " 
 
 Outcault failed to finish the sentence, not 
 because it would have been any betrayal of 
 Cap'n Pow's confidence for there was prob- 
 ably no one about Feme Run who could not 
 have supplied the name of the Lady which 
 Outcault omitted but because he was not in 
 the habit of talking of this chapter of Cap'n 
 Pow's life; and he was surprised at himself 
 that he should have touched on it in this 
 instance. A short process of self-analysis, 
 if he had been given to introspection, might 
 have shown him that, though he had seen so 
 little of Victoria Torrance, yet in his inmost 
 thoughts he had so long set her apart from all 
 others, that now when in her actual presence 
 he unconsciously assumed toward her some- 
 thing of the intimacy and confidence which
 
 Red Blood and Blue 215 
 
 years of nurture of his mental image of her 
 had generated. 
 
 Neither of them spoke for a few seconds 
 after this. 
 
 It was enough for Outcault that he was 
 near her so near that by taking two steps 
 toward her he could have touched her with 
 his hand ; that he could look upon her openly, 
 closely, and not as in the days when he 
 haunted the fields for a glimpse of her, 
 or later when he was limited to a passing 
 glance on the highway or a view of her across 
 the church. Here he was sitting before her, 
 with no other to divide his attention, with 
 nothing to interfere. He could see without 
 obstruction and without haste the exquisite 
 play of feature and color, the dignity, delicacy, 
 and at times sudden brilliancy of the facial ex- 
 pression, the firm mould of chin and forehead, 
 the mobile arch of the lips, the curve of the 
 lashes against the pure skin, the mingling 
 lights and shadows of the rebellious hair, the 
 lights and shadows of eyes that were fountains 
 of light and reservoirs of shadow, the graceful 
 lines of the slender figure, the sinuous swell 
 of the wrist, the rare modelling of the hand 
 as it sought once the coil of her hair, the very
 
 216 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 texture and folds and stir of the soft dress 
 which seemed a part of her. Outcault asked 
 no more than this now. It mattered nothing 
 to him that Victoria but a few minutes before 
 had almost dismissed him the house. That 
 was of the long past. Victoria herself was the 
 present. The future would take care of itself. 
 The present was his. It was of little conse- 
 quence what was said, so that it enabled him 
 to hear the voice he had heard so infrequently 
 in his life and so constantly in his dreams. 
 He took scant thought of what he should say 
 himself. He knew that now was no time for 
 saying anything but commonplaces. Some 
 day, after his business with Mr. Torrance was 
 settled, it would be different. 
 
 Victoria was the first to break the brief 
 silence. 
 
 " You spoke of the railroad," she said : " then 
 it is really to be built ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! It is already under way. With 
 anything like favorable weather it will be fin- 
 ished by spring. It is only about twenty-five 
 miles long, you know." 
 
 With such stop-gap questions by Victoria 
 and matter-of-fact answers by Outcault perhaps 
 a quarter of an hour more passed, when, to the
 
 Red Blood and Blue 217 
 
 keen regret of Outcault, Victoria rose, remark- 
 ing that she thought she heard her father 
 stirring in his room, and that she would go 
 up and see if he had yet wakened. 
 
 Five minutes later James York Torrance, 
 with his usual erect carnage, came slowly 
 down the stairway. Victoria did not return ; 
 and this, with the thought that he was not to 
 see her again now, was, for the moment, of 
 more concern to Outcault than the meeting 
 he was about to have with her father, which 
 he had waited for and worked for most of the 
 years of his life.
 
 2i 8 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 XIX 
 
 OUTCAULT rose as Mr. Torrance reached the 
 floor of the hall. The old gentleman bowed 
 courteously, and motioned Outcault to resume 
 his seat ; but he neither extended his hand to 
 his visitor nor called his name. 
 
 " My daughter informs me that you wish to 
 see me," he said, taking a chair almost across 
 the width of the hall from Outcault and ad- 
 dressing him with easy formality ; " and upon 
 an unusual mission, though I am not sure 
 that I understand it quite definitely." 
 
 "I can explain it to you, sir, in a few 
 words." 
 
 " Be so obliging, if you please." 
 
 " I wish to make good the money which my 
 father secured from you by inducing you, 
 through fraudulent representations, to form a 
 business connection with himself, and also to 
 make good to you the money which you paid 
 back to all others who were led to take stock 
 in that enterprise. In short, Mr. Torrance, 
 it is my object to restore to you all that you
 
 Red Blood and Blue 219 
 
 lost through my father ; and I am here to ask 
 you for a statement of the amount : for while 
 I have a reasonably accurate general idea of 
 it, I do not know the precise sum." 
 
 Mr. Torrance looked reflectively for several 
 seconds at the tips of his shapely fingers. 
 When he again lifted his eyes to Outcault he 
 said, with hardly a perceptible modification of 
 tone : 
 
 " I must own, sir, that your visit to me is 
 somewhat a surprise. Not that its purpose is 
 not a natural one. Such a purpose should be, 
 I might say, imperative on the part of any man 
 placed in the same situation as yourself. But 
 I am free to say it is not so, in our loose, latter- 
 day materialism. In fact, I may add that while 
 all men under like conditions to yours should 
 act as you propose to act, very few of them, I 
 fear, would do so. In fine, Mr. Outcault, your 
 case belongs to the exceptions, while it should 
 belong to the rule. Which is to say," with a 
 gentle and fleeting smile, " that it is not a 
 credit for one to do as you are doing : it would 
 merely be a discredit not to do as you are 
 doing." 
 
 Outcault restrained to his eyes the smile 
 that threatened his lips. " Perhaps you are
 
 220 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 right," he replied. " I have never considered 
 the matter philosophically. It is simply a 
 debt which fell to me, and until I have got 
 rid of it I shall never feel free to enjoy life 
 as a man should. So its payment now, instead 
 of being a point of credit, seems to be one 
 merely of selfishness. I had not thought of 
 it in that light before. The truth is, I sup- 
 pose, that the thought I have given it has 
 been chiefly upon the problem, how to get 
 the money. I trust it will not put you to 
 much trouble to furnish me the statement I 
 need." 
 
 " Oh, no ; it will be very little trouble. I 
 have the memoranda among my papers up- 
 stairs, I presume. But, of course, you under- 
 stand that I can permit you to return to me 
 only what I paid out to the other stockholders. 
 The eight thousand dollars which I subscribed 
 for the stock on my own account is quite an- 
 other affair. I ventured it of my own voli- 
 tion, with my eyes open caveat emptor, the 
 lawyers say, do they not ? and I lost it. 
 That is all there is to that. No one else is in 
 any way concerned in it." 
 
 " My father was concerned in it. Admitting 
 that you subscribed it as a business venture
 
 Red Blood and Blue 221 
 
 it was my father who appropriated it and ab- 
 sconded with it. I shall restore it to you, sir, 
 not because you made an unwise investment, 
 but because it was my father who stole it." 
 
 " Before proceeding any further let me 
 apologize for my little moralizing excursion 
 a moment ago. That was entirely gratuitous, 
 and certainly ill-timed. Please consider the 
 remarks unsaid, sir." 
 
 " If you wish," Outcault smiled. " How- 
 ever, they were not in the least disagreeable 
 to me, I assure you. I merely recognized 
 their truth." 
 
 " Because an opinion is true is no reason 
 why it should be flaunted out of its place. My 
 volunteering it on this occasion was a lapse of 
 taste for which there was no excuse. Now, sir, 
 to return to the object of your call: we can 
 quickly reach a clear understanding. While 
 you are under no legal obligation to pay me 
 anything, yet for sufficient reasons you desire 
 to recoup me for all that I lost through my 
 connection with your father. I have signified 
 my willingness to accept so much as I paid to 
 the stockholders, but I must, from motives 
 which you should recognize to be as natural 
 and cogent as those which prompt you in your
 
 222 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 course, decline to receive any part of the sum I 
 put into the concern on my own behalf. That, 
 sir, was my own act, whose consequences I 
 can allow no one else to assume." 
 
 "I don't think you have weighed fully my 
 side of the case. As you say, there is no ques- 
 tion of legal obligation. Nor will we discuss 
 any question of moral duty; for, as I have 
 intimated, it has not been that which moved 
 me. But it seems to me that I have a moral 
 right to pay you this money to do what I 
 can to repair the wrong committed by my own 
 father and to square myself among men with 
 my own self-respect. That right, sir, I assert 
 and insist upon." 
 
 " And I, sir, assert and insist upon the right 
 to keep myself squared with my own self- 
 respect. It is absolutely useless to press the 
 point." 
 
 It was pressed, nevertheless, forcibly and 
 resolutely, and resisted immovably. 
 
 " Very well, Mr. Torrance," Outcault finally 
 concluded. " Ever since I learned of the na- 
 ture and consequences of your business asso- 
 ciation with my father I have lived to cancel 
 his indebtedness to wipe out not only the 
 score he made, but as far as possible the stain
 
 Red Blood and Blue 223 
 
 he left upon myself. You refuse to let me do 
 this. You would condemn me for life to the 
 humiliation of my youth. That, sir, is your 
 affair; but it shall be mine to throw off this 
 shame, if not with your co-operation, without 
 it. I shall pay you all of this indebtedness you 
 will receive; the remaining eight thousand dol- 
 lars I shall deposit in the Feme Run National 
 Bank to your credit, to be taken or left by you 
 or yours as you see fit." 
 
 " And there it will remain forever then," 
 James York Torrance replied. 
 
 " Then let it remain. My end will have 
 been gained none the less. I shall have 
 done all I can do to free myself of the load 
 that I have carried. And I shall be free of 
 it." 
 
 There was no sign of anger in either. There 
 was a power in Outcault's measured words 
 more impressive than passion, and there was 
 in the speech and bearing of James York Tor- 
 rance the calm finality of a man who was 
 equally sure of himself. 
 
 Having reached this point, at which the 
 futility of further discussion was recognized 
 by each, Mr. Torrance went to his room and 
 returned in a few minutes with a statement
 
 224 R- e( i Blood and Blue 
 
 of the amount he had paid to the sharehold- 
 ers, and Outcault wrote him a check for it. 
 
 ." You understand now, Mr. Torrance," he 
 said, rising to leave, " that within forty-eight 
 hours the remaining eight thousand dollars 
 will be in the Feme Run National Bank, in 
 your name." 
 
 " I understand ; and so must you. I shall 
 never touch a cent of it. I am satisfied as it 
 is. If you choose to throw away eight thou- 
 sand dollars I presume it will be for your own 
 satisfaction, and I don't suppose there will be 
 any doubt of the bank's satisfaction." The 
 smile on the thin old face now was almost 
 winning. " Are you returning to Lorch this 
 afternoon ? " he asked. " Let me have your 
 horse put up and prevail on you to remain with 
 us for the night." 
 
 Outcault colored slightly. "Thank you, Mr. 
 Torrance. It would give me pleasure, but I 
 leave by this evening's train." 
 
 That was a purpose formed on the instant. 
 He was not sure that there was an evening 
 train; it would have been far more to him 
 than a pleasure to remain under this roof for 
 the night; but he had no intention that his 
 relations as debtor to James York Torrance
 
 Red Blood and Blue 225 
 
 should change so abruptly to those of guest, 
 especially as the hospitality to which he would 
 look would include that of Victoria. 
 
 Mr. Torrance had extended the invitation 
 because in the common acceptation of the 
 word he was a gentleman. Outcault had de- 
 clined it because he was also a gentleman ; 
 though it is hardly probable that he was re- 
 garded by Mr. Torrance as strictly such. The 
 older man would perhaps not have denied 
 that it was possible for one of Outcault's 
 origin to be an instinctive gentleman notwith- 
 standing, but he would certainly have held 
 that the chances were as a thousand to one 
 against it. 
 
 But Mr. James York Torrance was a gentle- 
 man as he interpreted that word, and he did 
 not permit Outcault to go yet. 
 
 " Pray let me detain you a moment, at any 
 rate," he interposed. " Victoria," he called up 
 the stairs, " come here, please." 
 
 Victoria appeared almost immediately, hurry- 
 ing down with an expression of wonder and 
 some anxiety on her face. 
 
 " Victoria," her father said, as she stopped 
 on the lowest step, " Mr. Outcault is on the 
 point of leaving, but before he goes I wish to 
 '5
 
 226 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 correct in your presence an injustice I once did 
 him, also in your presence." 
 
 Victoria looked from one to the other in 
 beautiful bewilderment; Outcault, nonplussed, 
 was staring blankly at Mr. Torrance ; and Mr. 
 Torrance was smiling benignly and pausing as 
 if to await the effect of his words. 
 
 " Many years ago," he resumed, " when Mr. 
 Outcault was a boy, I very peremptorily or- 
 dered him away from The Mounds. Indeed, 
 if my memory serves me, I believe I ordered 
 a servant to eject him." 
 
 Victoria's perplexed face broke in a sudden 
 smile. " Oh, yes ! I remember," she ex- 
 claimed. " It was when he shot the pigeon." 
 
 " Precisely," confirmed James York Tor- 
 rance. " But it was not so much because of 
 the pigeon as because of a of an erroneous 
 estimate of him that I was rude to him on 
 that occasion. And now, having discovered my 
 mistake, I wish to express my regret to Mr. 
 Outcault for the for the very decided breach 
 of hospitality I was guilty of at that time." 
 
 Outcault laughed, a little embarrassed. 
 " That is very thoughtful and graceful of you, 
 Mr. Torrance," he said, as if it were more than 
 half a joke, " especially as the incident was
 
 Red Blood and Blue 227 
 
 so long ago. I don't think I have ever har- 
 bored any violent animosity on account of it, 
 as," with a look at Victoria, " through the media- 
 tion of Miss Torrance, I came to no harm." 
 
 He turned again to Mr. Torrance. " Thank 
 you again for the ready assistance you have 
 given me this afternoon. Good-bye, sir," with 
 a formal bow. 
 
 James York Torrance advanced and took 
 the younger man's hand. 
 
 " Good-bye, Mr. Outcault," he said. " I 
 trust you will have no trouble in making your 
 way back to Lorch." 
 
 " Thank you, sir," Outcault replied, in almost 
 as ceremonious a manner as that of his host. 
 " Good-bye, Miss Torrance," bowing to Vic- 
 toria. 
 
 She stepped to the floor with outstretched 
 hand. 
 
 " Good-bye, Mr. Outcault." 
 
 He forgot his ceremony. It was with almost 
 a bound that he reached her and clasped her 
 hand, his blood tingling and his eyes fixed 
 upon hers, lifted frankly and smilingly, which 
 he searched with an unconscious fire that 
 caused her lids to fall.
 
 228 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 XX 
 
 TEN days later James York Torrance and 
 Victoria were back at The Mounds. His 
 changed fortunes made it no longer incumbent 
 upon him to begin life over on a West Tennes- 
 see cotton plantation ; and his reconciliation 
 with Victoria, together with her firmly declared 
 purpose to remain with him in any event, left 
 him no good reason, if he had wished any, 
 why he should not yield to her solicitation 
 and return home. The Dismukes were found 
 even readier to cancel his lease of their place 
 than they had been to make it; and there 
 being nothing further to detain him, James 
 York Torrance took the east-bound train at 
 Lorch, the morning sunlight being superflu- 
 ous for the illumination of the countenances of 
 his two companions, that of Victoria quietly 
 radiant, that of Bev broadly agrin. 
 
 On the day following his arrival at The 
 Mounds James York Torrance drove over to 
 Little Ony Swango's and paid him, principal
 
 Red Blood and Blue 229 
 
 and interest, the balance of the money borrowed 
 from him. 
 
 " Gorm ! " exclaimed that blunt-spoken indi- 
 vidual. "This knocks me. I never had no 
 idy you 'd ever be able to make this up, Mr. 
 Torrance. I knowed you went down to the 
 Deestric' two or three mont's ago to take a 
 fresh start in cotton, but you ain't had no 
 chanst to make no crop yit." 
 
 James York Torrance stood a little taller. 
 " You assuredly must have known, sir, that 
 I would pay you the very first thing after I 
 returned." 
 
 " Oh ! I knowed you 'd pay me the fus 
 thing after you got the money; but " 
 
 Ony ruminated over the mystery of it as he 
 chewed a splint from the fence on which he 
 was leaning. 
 
 " Well, sir, you must have known, ever since 
 Andrew Outcault got back, that I had the 
 money." 
 
 " Andy Outcault ? Oom, I dunno why any- 
 body 'd ever take up such a fool notion as that 
 Andy Outcault would know anything about 
 yo' privit affairs, Mr. Torrance." 
 
 " You don't mean to inform me, sir, that you 
 have not heard that Outcault has paid me the
 
 230 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 full amount of his father's embezzlement, bar- 
 ring my individual subscription to the stock of 
 the concern, which he pressed upon me, but 
 which I declined to accept ? " 
 
 Ony lifted his chin from his huge arms, 
 folded across the fence. 
 
 " Gorm ! Andy done that? You don't tell 
 me ! Well, I be gorm ! " 
 
 " He most undoubtedly has done that." 
 
 Ony sputtered the chewed splinter from his 
 mouth. 
 
 " I be gorm ! " 
 
 Then he carefully picked a fragment of the 
 wood from his inner lip, and added reflec- 
 tively : 
 
 " Oom, well, sir, I dunno as I oughter be so 
 much s'prised at Andy. That air chap is jus' 
 got the gumption of all out-o'-doors ; an' there 
 wan't no tellin' what he 'd be up to when he 
 made that las' turn in them phosphate lands he 
 was projickin' with. Oom, by gorm ! " 
 
 " I drove immediately to Feme Run," said 
 James York Torrance, after having related 
 this incident to Victoria that night, "and I 
 made it a point to accost several of my 
 acquaintances and mention this matter of Out- 
 cault's action ; but I found that none of them
 
 Red Blood and Blue 231 
 
 had heard of it. That meant, I judged, that 
 he had chosen to keep it to himself ; for un- 
 questionably if it had been divulged the village 
 would have been agog over it. Later I met 
 Outcault himself and taxed him with hiding 
 his light under a bushel ; to which he replied 
 that, regarding it as much my affair as his, 
 he had left it entirely with me. It is not 
 necessary for me to say that I shall take ade- 
 quate steps to give it full publicity. The fel- 
 low evidently has some of the promptings of 
 the well-bred. What puzzles me is where he 
 got them." 
 
 " But birth is not necessarily everything." 
 Victoria replied, not because she seemed dis- 
 posed to insist upon that view of the subject, 
 or upon any view of it, but rather because 
 her father had evidently expected her to say 
 something. 
 
 "It is virtually everything, so far as one's 
 real nature is concerned. There is no man of 
 innate honor who was not born such." 
 
 " But must every man of honor have had a 
 like parentage? " 
 
 "Like begets like. It is a rule to which 
 there is the rarest exception. You cannot 
 gather figs from thistles, though," his face
 
 23 1 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 hardening a little at thought of his own son, 
 " we sometimes gather thistles from figs." 
 
 " Does it not seem," asked Victoria, without 
 noting the personal deflection of his words, 
 " that if there are exceptions to the rule in 
 one direction there may be exceptions in the 
 other?" 
 
 " Granted that Outcault may be an excep- 
 tion, I fear that in a certain sense he will be 
 the unhappier for that reason. Materially he 
 has achieved some success. Material success, 
 in an age of growing materialism, will un- 
 doubtedly open the way to him to a certain 
 point, but only to a certain point. For ex- 
 ample, he appears to have social aspirations. 
 That being the case, the the elements of 
 our society to which his worldly accomplish- 
 ments will give him entrance will not satisfy 
 him ; but what except disappointment can 
 await him when he seeks admission on terms 
 of intimacy to the homes of such families as 
 as the Brookfields, the Fordyces, and the 
 Femes who really constitute our society as 
 the uncorrupted representatives of the 'Old 
 South ; ' a term which has been forced upon 
 us in these latter days in contradistinguish- 
 ment of the true South from the crass en-
 
 Red Blood and Blue 233 
 
 croachments of the vulgarity and superficiality, 
 the thrifty lust, the grovelling strife, the fever- 
 ish, elbowing, down-trampling, uprooting activ- 
 ity of what blares itself as the ' New South ' ? 
 The New South may batter down every barrier 
 of the Old South except that which guards its 
 social existence. That is impregnable to any 
 bludgeon of a weapon which the New South 
 can command." 
 
 It was a subject upon which he had moral- 
 ized repeatedly, and Victoria turned to a news- 
 paper which she held. 
 
 " Here is a leader in The Doctrinaire" she 
 said, "on the 'Delimitation of State Sover- 
 eignty and Constitutional Federalism.' Would 
 you like me to read it?" 
 
 " By all means. I do not wish to miss any- 
 thing The Doctrinaire says on that theme. 
 Poor Prendergast ! He is getting very old 
 now, and his pen is not what it once was, but 
 he is one of the few, the very few, who still 
 interpret the present and the future by the 
 light which the Fathers of the Republic lit. 
 Read it, Victoria."
 
 234 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 XXI 
 
 ON one of the last afternoons of that autumn 
 James York Torrance drove homeward from 
 Feme Run along Torrance Avenue. The sun 
 had disappeared behind a low rim of slate, of 
 the grime and heaviness of the soft-coal smoke 
 that hangs over a region of factories. The 
 dusk of the short day was rapidly deepening, 
 and lights were already shining hazily through 
 the windows of the straggling houses. The 
 long avenue was covered with the dead leaves 
 of the trees that lined it, and Mr. Torrance's 
 horse trotted over the rustling carpet with the 
 regular stride that had been familiar for many 
 years to the inhabitants of those straggling 
 houses. Here and there were great oaks to 
 which the brown foliage still clung ; and occa- 
 sionally one of these stirred faintly with a 
 shivering premonition of the oncoming winter. 
 A spectator, with a little imagination, behold- 
 ing the rigid figure, the frosty hair, the ice- 
 chiselled face of the man sitting behind the
 
 Red Blood and Blue 235 
 
 aged roadster, might have said that the winter 
 had already come. 
 
 The appearance of James York Torrance was 
 even more wintry than usual. He had that 
 day been defeated in an action at law which 
 he had brought to enjoin the construction of a 
 factory on Torrance Avenue, near The Mounds. 
 For several weeks he had made a stubborn 
 fight against this " modern " encroachment 
 upon the pastoral retirement of the old estate 
 which was his home. In his unbending way he 
 had at first expostulated with the projectors of 
 the enterprise, and had then proposed to buy 
 and present them another site on the other side 
 of town. But such efforts being unavailing, and 
 the excavations for the cellar and foundations 
 actually having begun, he had resorted to the 
 courts. To-day his suit had been decided 
 against him, and to-morrow work on the factory 
 would probably be resumed. 
 
 As he approached the eyesore he pulled his 
 horse from the road and drew rein at the side 
 of the excavation, sitting for a few seconds in 
 grim contemplation of what he had tried to 
 prevent. 
 
 Looking now upon the unseemly hole, his 
 eyes clou.ded and his mouth faltered.
 
 236 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " I am beaten," he said aloud, and he turned 
 away and shook up his horse. 
 
 But, with his poor vision and in the fading 
 light, he had driven nearer the excavation than 
 he had known, and its edge crumbling under 
 the horse's feet, the struggling animal, the 
 buggy, and the driver fell in a heap to the 
 bottom, eight or ten feet below. 
 
 James York Torrance was found there un- 
 conscious, less than a minute later, by Arthur 
 Feme, who was riding by on his way home 
 from The Mounds. 
 
 That night, as the old gentleman lay on his 
 bed, having been told by the doctor that death 
 was inevitable and near, there was the calm of 
 a last content upon his worn, beautiful face. 
 Miss Juliana and Clara were sniffling in a cor- 
 ner of the room, and Victoria, still and white 
 almost as the dying man, but tearless and 
 speechless, sat by the bedside. 
 
 He had just said good-bye, gently and 
 affectionately, to Bev, who had left the room 
 with bent form and streaming eyes. Vic- 
 toria, after a little, leaned closer and asked 
 softly : 
 
 " Is there no one else, father, you would like 
 to see ? "
 
 Red Blood and Blue 237 
 
 His lids drooped wearily and he shook his 
 head in the negative. 
 
 " No one," he answered weakly. " It is not 
 worth while, now." 
 
 Victoria hesitated, and then added, with 
 anxious resolution : 
 
 " But Lee, father : will you not see him ? He 
 is here and wishes me to ask you if you will not 
 speak to him." 
 
 It was the first time since his marriage that 
 she had ventured to mention Lee's name to 
 Mr. Torrance. 
 
 The dimming eyes opened and fixed them- 
 selves upon Victoria. The hand lying at his 
 side waved feebly in dissent. 
 
 " There is nothing to say," he answered, and 
 again closed his eyes. 
 
 In a few minutes, his eyes still closed, he 
 spoke again. " Arthur Feme," he murmured : 
 " did I not see him here ? " 
 
 " Yes," Victoria replied ; " he was the first 
 to reach you ; he helped to bring you home." 
 
 " Ask him to come in, if he is still 
 here." 
 
 Victoria left the room, and almost imme- 
 diately Feme entered. Victoria did not return 
 with him.
 
 238 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 There was a touch of fondness in the look 
 which the old man gave the younger. 
 
 " I wanted to thank you, Arthur, and to say 
 good-bye." 
 
 Feme took the open hand which crept along 
 the bed toward him. His eyes swam and 
 speech choked him. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Torrance," he said brokenly, 
 " perhaps it is not so bad as the doctor 
 fears." 
 
 " It is not bad, Arthur," he answered, with 
 his rare, sweet smile the last that was ever 
 to transfigure his face ; " it is well. My day 
 was done long ago. You see they are cut- 
 ting the very ground from the feet of us lin- 
 gering remnants of the Old Regime. You are 
 young, Arthur, but you are one of us, and I am 
 sorrier for you, because of your youth and the 
 odds against you, than you should be for me, 
 for whom the fight is over. Good-bye; and 
 now " his eyes closed once more and he 
 turned his face as if to sleep " now send me 
 Victoria." 
 
 Feme went out and Victoria hurried back, 
 her features drawn pathetically. She was no 
 longer able to hold herself in restraint, and 
 falling to her knees by her father's side, she
 
 Red BJood and Blue 239 
 
 buried her face in his pillow, with a sob of 
 agony. 
 
 For the last time James York Torrance 
 opened and shut his eyes, his hand finding and 
 resting upon the bowed head of Victoria, where 
 it remained until it was no longer the hand of 
 the living. 
 
 And thus left the world one who, though he 
 had long been in it, had, as the world had come 
 to be in his later years, never been of it.
 
 240 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 XXII 
 
 THE winter had passed, and spring was peep- 
 ing from behind the southern walls and slopes. 
 
 Arthur Feme, returning after a month's 
 absence in Florida, rode over the little railroad, 
 just completed, between Mavistoc and Feme 
 Run. The innovation was welcome to him 
 now, for he was impatient to reach home. He 
 had cut short his stay in Florida because it had 
 broken over him there that he had waited long 
 enough to know what life held for him ; that 
 the time had come when, from out the hover- 
 ing cloud of the devotee's adoration with which 
 he had invested Victoria Torrance as with a 
 nimbus, he should speak as a man, as well as 
 devotee, to the woman, as well as the divinity. 
 
 Hitherto that time, always looked forward 
 to as the crisis of his destiny, had ever seemed 
 indefinitely remote. In the days of his boy- 
 hood it had been far in that vast, vague state 
 that ever is to be, yet never is, which youth 
 dreams of as life. Later, in his early manhood, 
 he had felt that Victoria was too young, too
 
 Red Blood and Blue 24 1 
 
 exhilarated with the joyous freedom, the evan- 
 escent ideals, the crowding sensations, mys- 
 teries, wonder, of girlhood, to stop to listen to 
 the crude and selfish prayer of man's love. 
 Later still, as time matured all the promises 
 of her youth and developed new strength and 
 sweetness in her character, she had seemed 
 so infinitely above him that he was despondent 
 in his unworthiness, and dared not speak be- 
 cause he dared not lose her. During the last 
 year her entire consecration to her father, and 
 after his death the acuteness of her grief, 
 had been additional injunctions upon Feme's 
 silence. 
 
 But there was now no reason, except such 
 as would always exist, why he should not break 
 that silence. He would always be unworthy 
 of her; but what man was worthy of her? 
 Feme could never have loved any woman 
 whom he did not believe above him. To 
 hold that a man, because of such a belief in a 
 woman's superiority, should refrain from ask- 
 ing her in marriage, would have been, in 
 Feme's philosophy, to hold that the love of 
 man for woman is not justification upon which 
 he must find a wife. 
 
 It was a soft night in March when Feme 
 
 16
 
 242 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 rode out to The Mounds through the golden 
 mist of the moonlight and the pink drifts of 
 the peach orchards. When he rode back it 
 was through chill darkness, a wind that split 
 the peach-trees to the ground and a rain that 
 pelted their blossoms into the mire. The hand- 
 somest horseman of Feme Run sat slouched in 
 his saddle, the sharp spears of the rain strik- 
 ing upon his white face with never a flinch of 
 his eyelids. He had asked and been answered 
 the question which his heart had nurtured 
 almost since it began beating; and but for 
 one feeble ray, not of hope, but of possibility, 
 which Victoria's words had left him, there was 
 nothing but the barrenness of death-in-life to 
 which the future now condemned him. 
 
 " Oh, no, no ! " Victoria had cried with a 
 vehemence that Feme did not understand. 
 " Don't speak of it now ! Not now ! Not 
 now! I wish it were different. I wish I 
 could give you all you ask. But I could never 
 give you all you deserve. As I know you, 
 Arthur, you are all that a man should be; 
 all that no other man that I know is. Any 
 woman would be honored by such a love as 
 yours. I am proud of it, and yet pained by it 
 because I have nothing like it to give you
 
 Red Blood and Blue 243 
 
 because I am not, I can never be, worthy of 
 such a love. If I could single out from all 
 men one to whom of my own will to turn my 
 heart, it would be you ; and you were " 
 She was on the point of adding that he had 
 been her father's ideal of manhood; but she 
 checked herself. " I can promise you nothing. 
 I can only pray I shall pray that the feel- 
 ing for you which I lack now, will yet come to 
 me. But, frankly, I do not expect it; and 
 neither must you."
 
 244 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 XXIII 
 
 IT was the next month that the Congress of the 
 United States made the demands upon Spain 
 that were quickly followed by war. The Presi- 
 dent's call for volunteers met an eager re- 
 sponse in Tennessee, as elsewhere. To Feme 
 such an opportunity for active military service 
 was peculiarly welcome at this time. It offered 
 him at least a physical outlet from the torpor 
 into which his interview with Victoria Tor- 
 ranee had sunk him ; and to one of his imagi- 
 nation there were in a campaign at the front 
 even possibilities of developments that might 
 bring to his aid something which was now 
 wanting in his appeal to Victoria. His family 
 connections had influence at Washington, and 
 through this he secured a second lieutenant's 
 commission, leaving at once on his assignment. 
 Outcault, in the splendor of his youth and 
 health, this note of war thrilled with that 
 which ever made the old Northmen of his 
 race superb in conflict, whether in rage for
 
 Red Blood and Blue 245 
 
 mere battle's sake, or in onslaught for the 
 sake of cause and kind. Outcault dropped, 
 where he stood, his work of money-getting and 
 " developing the country." So much of it as 
 Lee Torrance could do was turned over to that 
 ardent disciple of Outcault's. The rest was 
 allowed to wait or to rot, as time might prove. 
 It was all clod to him now, over which he 
 walked to the newer and stronger music that 
 had struck for him. 
 
 He did not join any of the companies of 
 Tennessee militia, as the Feme Run boys 
 did ; but, being moved solely by the desire to 
 get where there was righting to be done, and 
 to get there at the earliest moment, and believ- 
 ing, from some correspondence with a former 
 schoolmate, who was an officer in a Northern 
 volunteer regiment, that it would be among 
 the first to be sent to Cuba, Outcault deter- 
 mined to seek service as a private under 
 him. 
 
 One of the last things, and the main thing, 
 he set himself to do before leaving, was to see 
 Victoria Torrance. He had hardly laid eyes 
 on her since her return from West Tennessee. 
 Following her father's death her winter had 
 been one of comparative seclusion, and as
 
 246 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 Outcault was away from home most of the time 
 he had not even been thrown with her on any 
 of her brief visits to Lee and Janet. 
 
 It was after one of these visits of hers that 
 Outcault, returning to Cap'n Pow Halliburton's 
 on an April afternoon, came upon Victoria, as 
 she was about driving off. He went up to her, 
 lifting his hat, with a conventional greeting, 
 and she, after an instant of hesitation almost 
 too fleeting to be noticed, held out her hand to 
 him. 
 
 There was a brief exchange of those trifles 
 found so convenient by people who have 
 nothing to say to each other, or who have 
 more to say than they choose to say at the 
 time. 
 
 " I am glad to have met you this afternoon," 
 Outcault declared, as Victoria gathered up the 
 reins to drive on. " I am leaving this week, I 
 hope on my way to Cuba, and I wanted to see 
 you before going, and ask your good wishes." 
 
 " You have them without asking," she smiled. 
 
 " Then I shall find you at home to-night, or 
 to-morrow?" 
 
 For two seconds her eyes seemed to study 
 some point straight ahead of her. Then she 
 turned them, clear and frank, upon Outcault.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 247 
 
 " I shall be at home either to-night or to- 
 morrow," she answered. 
 
 " Then let it be to-night." 
 
 And thus, at last, was arranged Andrew 
 Outcault's formal call at The Mounds. 
 
 During the first half hour of that call a 
 casual onlooker would have inferred that it 
 was much more pleasurable to the girl than to 
 the man. Victoria chatted easily and brightly 
 of things in which Outcault must necessarily 
 be interested the preparations for the war, 
 Feme Run's contributions to the State militia, 
 the blockade of Cuba which had just been 
 declared, Outcault's own plans for participating 
 in the drama that was so stirring the country. 
 But Outcault appeared under an ill-borne re- 
 straint. His part in the talk was disjointed 
 and sometimes distant. His mind evidently 
 lapsed or overleaped to something that was 
 stronger to hold it than was any subject on 
 which Victoria touched. 
 
 Suddenly he changed his seat to a chair 
 nearer Victoria; and leaning forward, a little 
 awkwardly, but with tremendous earnestness, 
 said : 
 
 " Miss Torrance, I must appear very abrupt 
 perhaps I should be less so if I were not
 
 248 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 going away so soon but I could not go, or 
 would not, without telling you, what I have 
 always wanted to tell you some time, that the 
 one great thing in my life has been my love for 
 you, and that my one great hope is that some 
 day it will not be unwelcome to you " 
 
 " Stop ! stop ! you must not ! I cannot 
 permit you to speak of such things ! " 
 
 She threw up her hand as if to ward off his 
 words, her face flashing with command. 
 
 Outcault's pause was very brief. His tone 
 was perhaps calmer as he went on. 
 
 " I must speak of them, and now. There 
 is a possibility that I may not have another 
 opportunity." 
 
 " Then I will not listen ! " 
 
 She rose, and Outcault also stood. 
 
 "To listen is the least you can do, Miss 
 Torrance," he said firmly ; " and that I shall 
 insist upon your doing." 
 
 " You will force me to the rudeness of leav- 
 ing the room." 
 
 She took a step toward the door, but she 
 seemed to be restrained by the more resolute 
 step of Outcault following her. 
 
 " And you will force me to the greater rude- 
 ness of detaining you," he interposed.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 249 
 
 He was now between her and the door. 
 Their eyes met for a second, and hers were the 
 first to fall. 
 
 " As you will," she answered, signifying her 
 submission with a slight shrug ; " please be 
 brief." 
 
 He drew a chair to her and she sat down. 
 He continued to stand. 
 
 " It is not so much," he said, in a voice rough 
 from the feeling with which it was charged, 
 " when a man who has loved a woman ever 
 since he can remember, who has given her 
 every thought and every hope, and who has 
 asked of her as yet nothing in return, takes a 
 few minutes of her time in which to reveal 
 himself to her, still asking of her nothing ex- 
 cept that she shall see him as he is." 
 
 He waited a second, as if for some word or 
 sign from her ; but she gave none, as she sat 
 in silence, even her eyes concealed from him by 
 downcast lids. 
 
 " As I have said, I have loved you ever since 
 I can remember; and yet I have never loved 
 you for a moment when I did not know that 
 there were strong barriers between us. At 
 first I did not understand clearly what they 
 were ; but neither then nor later, when I un-
 
 250 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 derstood them fully, did I ever waver in my de- 
 termination to beat them down or break over 
 them. I knew that I did not place them there, 
 and I made up my mind that I would not be 
 denied the best there was in life because of 
 the acts of others, or the prejudices of caste, 
 for none of which I was responsible. I call 
 them barriers. God knows they are. The 
 world your world considers them impreg- 
 nable. But, faugh ! they are trifles, they are 
 nothing, to stay a love which can no more be 
 checked or killed by them than it was created 
 by them." 
 
 She gave him a swift glance of depreca- 
 tion. "Why refer to these things?" she 
 protested. 
 
 " Why ? Because I want you to know me, 
 not as others may know, but as I know myself. 
 Because I want you to know yourself better 
 than you do yet. Shall I tell you what I know 
 of you ? Oh, do not object," as she made a 
 motion of demurrer. " It is necessary in order 
 that you may know me. You have a mind of 
 your own, and you use it. Some day you will 
 discover you have a heart of your own, and 
 until that day I shall know you better, per- 
 haps, than you know yourself. You are. honest,
 
 Red Blood and Blue 251 
 
 independent, brave, but you are hedged more 
 or less by influences against which you have 
 never yet found it necessary to assert yourself. 
 Pride of family, advantage of position, class 
 distinctions are still potent with you, though 
 even now they would not be omnipotent with 
 you. But what I have called the barriers be- 
 tween you and myself would be regarded by 
 you, at present, as almost too formidable to 
 be assailed." 
 
 " Surely there is no occasion to discuss my- 
 self in what you have to say." 
 
 " There is to show you that I realize that 
 among the barriers between us one of the 
 strongest is yourself. All these years, when 
 I longed to speak, yet had no right to speak 
 when I even had no right to seek your 
 society as other men did " 
 
 He was impelled to tell her of his distant 
 worship of her through his boyhood and young 
 manhood, of the inspiration it had been to 
 him, of the struggle which it had moved him 
 to make, of the difficulties it had helped him to 
 defy and overcome ; but he abruptly repressed 
 the impulse. 
 
 " No ! I will not impose upon you now my 
 past. You would hardly look upon it as less
 
 252 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 than impertinent. I know it is too soon to 
 speak to you of myself at all yet; but, if I 
 should not come back, I wanted you to know 
 that my life had been wholly yours, though it 
 may have been nothing to you ; while if I do 
 come back, as I most likely shall, all the obsta- 
 cles which the world, or which you, would in- 
 terpose between us " he paused, his hand 
 closing in a powerful grip, as if to crush so 
 much straw, his head lifting a little and a 
 smile touching his strong face " shall be as 
 nothing." 
 
 Victoria, who had been sitting with face that 
 told nothing except serious attention, and eyes 
 that contemplated steadfastly the hands folded 
 in her lap, looked up, after a moment of Out- 
 cault's silence, seemingly in inquiry if he had 
 finished. 
 
 " I do not ask any reply to what I have 
 said," Outcault went on. " I know that you 
 can give me no answer now that I want. All 
 that I do ask of you is that you forgive me 
 for having made an unwilling listener of you 
 this evening, and will you say good-bye to 
 me ? " 
 
 He extended his hand, without yet approach- 
 ing any nearer.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 253 
 
 She showed no hesitation, or displeasure, as 
 she rose from her chair. 
 
 " Good-bye, Mr. Outcault," offering him her 
 hand. " I hope the war will be short, and 
 that you will go safely through it." 
 
 "Thank you." 
 
 He released her hand and fell back a step, 
 but did not yet leave. They stood facing each 
 other, he as if suspending some speech, she 
 waiting. 
 
 " Won't you add," he asked, " that you hope 
 I shall soon return ? " 
 
 " I do hope you will soon return, Mr. Out- 
 cault." 
 
 She spoke sincerely, yet not unconven- 
 tionally. 
 
 " Then I shall ; I know I shall, though I pass 
 through a hundred battles ! " 
 
 Outcault's voice was not above its usual pitch, 
 but there was that in it which might have been 
 there if he were already announcing himself 
 triumphant after more than a hundred battles. 
 
 Victoria felt it and started, as though the 
 sensation were from some physical force. She 
 caught her breath and quickly enjoined : 
 
 "But not to renew the subject you have 
 spoken of to-night. You are never to do that.
 
 254 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 What you wish of me is will always be an 
 absolute impossibility." 
 
 Outcault did not flinch at this. He had 
 the manner of one who was eking out pre- 
 cious time for a last look at the girl from whom 
 he was parting, rather than of one who attached 
 much significance to what was now said or 
 left unsaid. 
 
 He smiled as his eyes lingered on her, and 
 then replied, with a calmness that was expres- 
 sive more of conviction than of assurance : 
 
 " If you understood a man's love you would 
 know that, against it, there is no impossibility." 
 
 He bowed, and was gone ; and Victoria, 
 turning from the doorway through which Out- 
 cault had passed, was confronted by the patri- 
 cian face of her father, looking down upon her 
 coldly from the new portrait which had recently 
 been added to the series of James York Tor- 
 ranees. And as she stood before it she was 
 breathing more rapidly, and a mist upon her 
 eyes blurred the passionately loved features, 
 whose every sensitive index of repose and 
 change she had all her life so solicitously 
 studied.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 257 
 
 and came down here to find you; and just as 
 we reached this point you appeared at the other 
 end of the opening yonder, walking toward us, 
 with your hat in your hand ; and if I had been 
 a man I 'm sure I 'd have gone down on my 
 very knees; and Arthur, he seemed afraid 
 to breathe at first, and then he quoted such 
 pretty verses that I made him write them out 
 for me afterward, so that I could memorize 
 them: 
 
 '"At times a fragrant breeze comes floating by, 
 And brings, you know not why, 
 A feeling as when eager crowds await 
 Before a palace gate 
 
 " ' Some wondrous pageant ; and you scarce would start, 
 If, from a beech's heart, 
 
 A blue-eyed Dryad, stepping forth, should say, 
 " Behold me ! I am May." ' 
 
 " What charming poems Arthur Feme knows," 
 Rosalie went on without a pause. " Don't you 
 think so? Of course he has repeated many of 
 them to you." 
 
 " No ; but I hav read that one in a book 
 which he gave me. It is beautiful." 
 
 " Beautiful! Everything Arthur Feme likes, 
 or does, is beautiful. He has the most beau- 
 tiful mind of any man I know, and the most 
 17
 
 258 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 beautiful ideas about women. Don't you 
 think so?" 
 
 " Yes ; I have always thought so," Victoria 
 replied softly. 
 
 "And he is so fair where other men are 
 concerned. The other day such an unfortu- 
 nate thing happened. Andrew Outcault and 
 I were sitting in the summer-house. We did 
 not notice Arthur Feme and Teddy Picker- 
 ing come through the gate and up the 
 walk, until they were almost right on us. 
 They did not notice us at all; and as they 
 passed by they were talking just think of 
 it! about Andrew Outcault himself! We 
 heard Teddy say that people were saying that 
 Andrew paid those those debts of his father 
 simply because he wanted to make you 
 think well of him, and " 
 
 " Oh, Rosalie ! why do you listen to such 
 nonsense ? " Victoria protested. 
 
 " And Arthur immediately flared up and said 
 that people were impertinent and silly ; that 
 they had no right, and Teddy had no right, to 
 use your name in any such connection ; and 
 that as for Andrew Outcault, he was an honor- 
 able man and would have paid that money if 
 there had not been a woman in the world. I
 
 Red Blood and Blue 259 
 
 wish you could have seen Andrew Outcault's 
 face, Victoria. It turned so pale and he 
 looked so so funny that I almost cried for 
 him. But when Arthur and Teddy had gone 
 on into the house and I got up to follow them 
 and asked Mr. Outcault if he would come too, 
 he laughed in such a queer manner and said 
 that he would not run away, and that he wanted 
 to shake the hand of the finest gentleman he 
 knew, meaning Arthur Feme, of course ; and 
 he went on in the house with me and talked 
 with us a while as if nothing had happened. 
 But was n't it awkward, and are n't some people 
 mean ? " 
 
 "Let us go back," said Victoria, absently 
 lifting her hand to draw about her shoulders a 
 wrap which she had not brought ; " it is damp 
 and chilly here."
 
 160 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 XXV 
 
 BEFORE Santiago de Cuba that last night in 
 June two men were thinking of Victoria Tor- 
 ranee. 
 
 It was understood that the morning would 
 bring battle, unless the enemy declined it. 
 There were some who feared that he would 
 make little or no resistance ; but whether he 
 fought or fled, there were few in the jaded yet 
 impatient ranks of the Americans that 'night 
 who did not expect to raise the flag in San- 
 tiago before their three days' rations were 
 exhausted. 
 
 Reveille at daylight of the first of July awoke 
 to electric life every fibre in Andrew Outcault's 
 tired body, and he sprang to his feet with 
 kindling color. 
 
 The march began in the early morning. 
 Another time its beauty might have impressed 
 Outcault : the beauty of wooded hills that rose 
 and fell in this spreading trough between the 
 mountains; the beauty of stretches of lush
 
 Red Blood and Blue 261 
 
 forest, of drifts of rank jungle, a vista of 
 tropical opulence and pastoral peace. 
 
 But Outcault was insensible to it now, 
 except as so much obstruction that must be 
 passed before the clash of conflict could come ; 
 and through it he trod with the regular step of 
 the column. It was a step to which, at first, in 
 its determined advance, Outcault was tensely 
 keyed ; but later, as the trail through the wild 
 seemed unending, the progress was so slow that 
 the " cadence " of the column became a chafing 
 restraint, from which he did not find relief until, 
 his company deploying through the chaparral, 
 the lines were broken, and Outcault kept step 
 only to his own desires. 
 
 It was before this, however, and soon after the 
 march began, that, to the rear and the right, 
 there was a boom whose reverberation among 
 the hills was caught up by the moving column, 
 along which it rolled in a murmurous wave 
 until it burst about Outcault in a jubilant 
 shout, as an incoming tide rises and explodes 
 on the breakers' comb. It was the first gun 
 of Capron's battery trained upon Caney, and 
 to Outcault it was the first full note of the 
 heroic drama to which all else had been the 
 prelude.
 
 262 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 It was not long before the throb of Capron's 
 sonorous music found antiphonal response, 
 nearer, fiercer, from the throats of Grimes' guns 
 on the knoll of El Poso, ahead and to the left, 
 as they opened on the redouts of Santiago. 
 And after that began to sound the sibilant reeds 
 and singing strings of the orchestra which now 
 filled the great auditorium of the valley ; for 
 the air was whipped with whispers that were 
 not of the summer leaves, with buzzing that 
 was not of the summer insects, as the Spanish 
 bullets sped from trench and bush. For a time 
 Outcault was so near El Poso that, wide and 
 distinct above all else, could be heard, after the 
 roar of the artillery, the resistless sweep of 
 the missile's flight; and it was as the sweep 
 of the wing of the Death Angel athwart the 
 valley. But to Outcault now the Angel of 
 Death and the Angel of Life were one, and 
 all-glorious. 
 
 Soon strange visions began to come over 
 the road: men hobbling back to the rear; 
 others supported by their fellows; maimed 
 bodies on litters. Blood saturated hasty band- 
 ages, and, in the case of one dying boy, 
 while the surgeon was yet fighting it, gushed 
 out on the grass with the strokes of the
 
 Red Blood and Blue 263 
 
 young heart. And every drop of the blood 
 which Outcault saw, instead of unnerving 
 him, swelled a stream of fire in his own 
 arteries that drove him, as the forced draught 
 of an engine, to utmost action. Before he had 
 seen this blood he had been buoyed onward 
 by the ecstasy of combat; now he burned 
 with the fury to avenge, the frenzy to destroy. 
 Yet through it all he had not been able to 
 aim a blow, to sight an antagonist, to force 
 his way one step faster than the crawling 
 column. Hardest of all was when the halt 
 and the long wait came, with nothing to do 
 but listen to the volleys further on, to the lisps 
 of the enemy's bullets, to watch the wounded 
 coming back, or to see now and then some 
 companion struck down by a hidden sharp- 
 shooter. Nowhere a visible foe; nowhere to 
 strike ; but everywhere the signs of battle, 
 and every moment the knowledge that he 
 might be the next to fall ; that the day was 
 slipping by, and that his part was still to wait. 
 He gored the ground with his heel and ripped 
 loose the neck of his shirt in his rebellious 
 impatience ; and when at last the order came 
 to advance, it was with a quick cheer that he 
 swung forward, breasting his way through the
 
 264 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 jungle as a lusty man breasts exultantly the 
 driving gale. The long grass swirled about 
 his legs, briers clutched him, boughs lashed 
 him ; but they stimulated rather than retarded 
 him as he tore onward. Overhead a torrid 
 sun was beating down, and under foot the 
 humid earth was steaming, but in his pres- 
 ent mood the very heat was a tremendous 
 exhilarant. 
 
 Thus crashing through the brake, he 
 finally sprang into the open, to find that his 
 own company was nowhere in sight and to 
 step into the ranks of a regiment of regulars, 
 whose lines were being re-formed. 
 
 As he halted here for a moment he swept 
 the scene before him. Straight ahead, a shal- 
 low valley, knee-deep in coarse grass; on the 
 far side a gradual upward slope, and then what 
 seemed an almost sheer rise, a hundred and 
 thirty feet, to the crest of the hill, whose ridge 
 ran horizontally, then to a gentler descent 
 on the right, but on the left falling more 
 sharply down to the plain and blending in 
 the billowy outlines of the wooded heights in 
 the distance. On the summit of the hill was 
 a squat fort ; picketing it, straggling lines of 
 posts supporting wire barricades ; distorting
 
 Red Blood and Blue 265 
 
 the face of the hill, the hissing lips of rifle- 
 pits ; and over all, the plumes of royal palms 
 against the serene sky. 
 
 As Outcault stood looking at this, the man 
 by his side suggested that he go to the rear 
 and have his wound dressed, and for the first 
 time Outcault noticed a trickle of red down 
 his wrist. His mouth curved with a quick 
 smile, and his nostrils expanded with the elixir 
 of burnt powder in the air. 
 
 But why were they waiting? Was there 
 any thought of falling back? It is said that 
 there had been no general order to charge, 
 unsupported by artillery as they were, that 
 fortified hill. But there was the hill in front ; 
 there were the woods behind ; and here were 
 American battalions between. Could there 
 be any question whether those battalions 
 would take the hill or take to the woods? 
 
 Away to one side Outcault heard sudden 
 cheering, and glancing in that direction he saw 
 that the boys there had begun to press across 
 the valley. If this command was not going 
 up that hill, yonder was one that was, and 
 he was going with it. He leaped forward, but 
 it was not alone. Whether an order was given, 
 he never knew ; but there were yelling throats
 
 266 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 and trampling feet around him, and as he 
 started toward the hill his fellows were by his 
 side. 
 
 And then, before fifty yards had been passed, 
 darkness surged over him and he pitched for- 
 ward on his face.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 267 
 
 XXVI 
 
 THE reveille that morning did not wake Lieu- 
 tenant Arthur Feme, for he had not been 
 asleep. There was so much that crowded into 
 his thoughts on that last night before battle ; 
 so much that seemed clearer and sweeter than 
 ever before. Perhaps it was really his last 
 night. How short and empty his life had 
 been ; how differently he would value it if he 
 were to have another chance. And Victoria 
 Torrance! Surely life had never begun for 
 him, for it had not yet begun for him with 
 her. And now, it may be, he was never even 
 to know. 
 
 Reveille took him back to that night in his 
 boyhood when he lay awake and counted the 
 strokes of the town clock, his brain teeming 
 with the messages of doom those strokes must 
 toll to the man in the jail, under the very 
 shadow of the belfry, who was to be hanged at 
 six in the morning. 
 
 As he made ready for the march the one 
 word which repeatedly forced itself on him
 
 268 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 was the saddest in the language, the word 
 "last." It might be the last sunrise; the 
 last time he would look at the picture of his 
 mother in the back of his watch ; the last line 
 he would ever write to Victoria Torrance, 
 this which he hastily pencilled, sealed, and 
 placed in his pocket, " To be forwarded only 
 in case of death" 
 
 Never did the earth appear so beautiful as 
 when he marched with his men this morn- 
 ing, never so beautiful nor so tranquil, and 
 never war so horrible. Life was lavish on 
 every hand, and yet here were thousands of 
 human beings, the highest embodiments of 
 life, bent only upon the destruction of life. 
 
 When the first gun at Caney rumbled sepul- 
 chrally among the hills, he stood again by the 
 graves of his dead and heard the clods falling 
 upon the coffins. 
 
 The road was very wearisome. The heat 
 was distressing. It weakened him until he 
 was not sure of his knees. He breathed it 
 and wanted to gasp for air. His throat was 
 dry, and he had a sensation as if his aching 
 eyes were swelling against lids and sockets. 
 
 When the wounded began to pass he grew 
 faint. At sight of some of the mutilated forms
 
 Red Blood and Blue 269 
 
 waves of nausea crept over him, and while he 
 gazed into the blanched face of a poor fellow 
 on a litter, the rear litter-bearer, picked off by 
 some hidden guerilla, lurched forward upon 
 the wounded man, and the cry that followed 
 pierced Feme to the marrow. He closed his 
 eyes, with a groan that might have been an 
 echo of the cry from the quivering body on 
 the litter. 
 
 Once, as his regiment was waiting by the 
 roadside and he was fighting against a feeling 
 that he was a helpless target upon which in- 
 visible eyes were drawing aim, he heard a soft 
 thud, and as he caught a tottering figure at his 
 side he realized with a waning pulse that he 
 had heard for the first time the sound a bullet 
 makes when it strikes flesh and bone. 
 
 He was glad to obey when, just after this, he 
 was ordered about forty yards from the road to 
 a spot in the bushes where two or three officers 
 were trying to interview a Spanish prisoner. 
 As Feme spoke the language he was di- 
 rected to question the Spaniard, which he did 
 to little avail. The prisoner was loquacious, 
 but vacuous of that information which the 
 Americans wished. He had been sent into 
 the woods as a sharpshooter, but he was ill
 
 270 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 and hungry. He had heard that the Ameri- 
 cans had plenty to eat and treated their pris- 
 oners well. He was too faint to climb his 
 tree that day and he had proposed to his 
 friend Emilio that they give themselves up. 
 Emilio swore to shoot him if he made the 
 attempt ; those were Emilio's bullets now cut- 
 ting off the twigs above their heads. Would 
 not the Americans allow him to lie down in 
 the gully, where Emilio could not see him? 
 
 He was sent under guard to bring Emilio " to 
 dinner," and it was while awaiting the result 
 of this expedition that an incident was noted 
 which afterwards got into some of the news- 
 papers as illustrative of Feme's "coolness." 
 Some one suggested that as Emilio and other 
 marksmen had already located the party, cigars 
 would not be out of order, and passed one to 
 Feme. As he smoked it a bullet clipped off 
 the end of the cigar. He smiled weakly, but 
 stooping, picked up the still burning tip, with 
 which he relighted the piece remaining be- 
 tween his lips. Then he sauntered up to a 
 tree and leaning hard against it, had his 
 smoke ; but chill globules of perspiration had 
 formed upon his forehead. 
 
 Later, in the jungle through which his com-
 
 Red Blood and Blue 271 
 
 pany forced its way, he feared he would sink 
 down in sheer inability to keep on his feet. 
 He almost fell when he stumbled over a still 
 form with stony eyes and dropped jaw; but 
 he had understood before that why the buz- 
 zards were in the sky and why they were fly- 
 ing so low. 
 
 When he emerged from the cover of the 
 thicket and looked across that open stretch to 
 the hill which rose beyond, a chaplain, who 
 was ministering to the wounded and the 
 exhausted with a canteen of whiskey, came 
 up to him. 
 
 "Take some of this," he urged, with com- 
 passion in his eyes ; " you look very tired." 
 
 Feme grasped the canteen with a hand that 
 tried to be firm, and took a drink that under 
 other conditions he would have quickly felt, 
 but which now seemed to have no effect on 
 him whatever. 
 
 When his company began its charge across 
 the valley Feme, like one in a stupor, went 
 with it, until, not a stone's throw beyond the 
 point where Andrew Outcault had fallen a few 
 seconds before, a treacherous step suddenly 
 prostrated him to the earth, while his men 
 pushed doggedly on.
 
 272 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 He lay there in the tall grass less than a 
 minute, but it seemed to him ages. Over him 
 flashed the thought that he need not go any 
 farther now ; that he could lie there until the 
 danger was past ; that he could honestly plead 
 the physical collapse from heat and fatigue 
 that had disabled many another that day. But 
 and his frame shook with agonizing humil- 
 iation as he dug his fingers into the rooted 
 loam he knew now that he did not want to 
 get up. He would not get up. He was afraid 
 to face that hill 
 
 He flung himself up on one elbow and 
 stared wildly around as if seeking some escape 
 from himself; and then something terrible and 
 magnificent appeared something with heav- 
 ing chest, with blood flowing down a set face 
 from a bullet furrow against the skull, and 
 with the blaze of battle in the eyes. Outcault, 
 pressing on toward the hill, saw Feme, and 
 with unconcealed reluctance paused. 
 
 " You, Ferae ! " he said, kneeling at his side. 
 " Where are you hit ? Perhaps I can do some- 
 thing for you." 
 
 Ferae sprang to his feet and confronted 
 Outcault as if at bay. Flushing with shame, 
 but meeting Outcault's puzzled scrutiny with
 
 Red Blood and Blue 273 
 
 a stare of defiance, he replied in sullen 
 fierceness : 
 
 " I am not wounded." 
 
 " Are you ill ? " 
 
 " I am not ill. There is nothing the matter 
 with me." 
 
 " Not wounded ! Not my God ! not worse, 
 Feme?" 
 
 Feme's eyes drooped, but he said it : 
 
 " Worse." 
 
 " You ! " 
 
 It was a low imprecation, harsh with wrath 
 and contempt, that seemed to tear the cords 
 of Outcault's throat. He threw his rifle to his 
 shoulder and levelled it at Feme's head. 
 
 Feme did not blench. 
 
 " Kill me," he said, now looking steadily at 
 Outcault. " I do not want to live. I am a 
 coward." 
 
 The butt of Outcault's gun dropped to the 
 ground, and the two men gazed at each other 
 in silence. 
 
 Then the glory flamed in Outcault's eyes 
 again, and he swept San Juan Hill with his 
 free hand. 
 
 " Yonder ! " he cried. " Look yonder, man ! 
 There is the place to die ! " 
 18
 
 274 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 Feme followed the gesture and marked the 
 thin ranks of the Americans, stopping at 
 nothing, now almost at the foot of the hill. 
 
 " Come on ! " shouted Outcault. " Come 
 with me ! " 
 
 Outcault drove forward, and Feme, as one 
 to whom nothing mattered now, moved me- 
 chanically after him. Outcault was right : 
 death was there, quick, merciful, almost sure. 
 
 The two plunged on together, and it was not 
 long before Feme's company was overtaken. 
 His ranking officers had been killed, and Feme, 
 greeted by a cheer, led his men up the 
 hill. 
 
 How the hill was stormed is a familiar story. 
 Some of Feme's company reached the summit ; 
 some had fallen before they crossed the valley ; 
 and others had been shot down along the 
 hillside. 
 
 Feme stood at the top, taking little note 
 of the demonstration around him, his listless 
 eyes turned in the direction of the routed 
 garrison as it retreated toward the city. 
 
 Then, weak from loss of the blood that 
 flowed from the wound in his side, he felt 
 his senses leaving him, and as he reeled and 
 sank to the ground it was with the content of
 
 Red Blood and Blue 275 
 
 that promised death which is the most that 
 hope has to give. 
 
 Outcault never reached the hill. Another 
 bullet felled him not long after Feme had re- 
 joined his company; and this time Outcault 
 did not get up. 
 
 In the list of the wounded, telegraphed to 
 the War Department and by it given to the 
 newspaper press, was the name of Lieutenant 
 Arthur Feme ; in the list of the killed was the 
 name of private A. Outcault.
 
 276 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 XXVII 
 
 WHEN Arthur Feme came out of hospital at 
 Montauk Point, whither he had been trans- 
 ferred from Cuba, he found that he was looked 
 upon as one of the " heroes " of the short war. 
 The newspapers had made much of the part 
 he had taken, or was reported to have taken, 
 in the assault on San Juan Hill. As their 
 story was, his desperate wound had been 
 received at the beginning of the charge. 
 He had been shot down in the field and his 
 company had rushed on, leaving him as dead. 
 But he had succeeded in getting to his feet 
 again; fearfully wounded as he was, he had 
 dashed on, and, overtaking his company, whose 
 only surviving officer he now was, had placed 
 himself at its head and had rallied it irre- 
 sistibly forward. Nothing could withstand 
 the onslaught he inspired, though falling at 
 every step were those who followed him ; and 
 it was not until, under his brilliant leadership, 
 the hill had been seized that, on its very sum-
 
 Red Blood and Blue 277 
 
 mit, he had sunk to the ground, more dead 
 than alive from the shrapnel hole in his side. 
 It was a story which caught the popular 
 imagination, inflamed as it was by the deeds 
 that made memorable that first day of July. 
 It lost nothing by repetition, and it was re- 
 peated again and again. Feme read with 
 ceaseless amazement and nettling self-con- 
 tempt the correspondents' effusive descrip- 
 tions of what he had done, or of what they 
 said he had done. He scanned with amuse- 
 ment and impatience the pictures of himself 
 and the drawings of his alleged performances. 
 He thought, with a sense of shame, of his 
 superiors' official and public commendation 
 for gallantry in action, and of the general 
 assumption that he would of course be 
 among the first to be promoted therefor by 
 the President and the Senate. But through 
 all and above all through all his feeling of 
 unworthiness and guilt, above all his desire 
 to rebel against the honors that were heaped 
 upon him, and to place himself in his true 
 light was his wondering, in his waking 
 and in his sleeping, what effect this lionizing 
 of a man who loved her would work upon 
 Victoria Torrance, in the quiet of her country
 
 27 8 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 home and in the mystery of her woman's heart 
 And wondering thus, he submitted to the 
 honors which, if he had not deserved, he had 
 not sought, and dreamed dreams of requited 
 love when he was impelled to speak out against 
 the false position in which he had been placed. 
 The village of Feme Run was very proud of 
 the fame that had come to one of its sons ; 
 prouder, perhaps, since Feme Run in no small 
 degree shared that fame. The biographic 
 sketches of Arthur Feme made mention of 
 Feme Run as the place of his birth and resi- 
 dence, and some of the illustrated weeklies had 
 published photographic views of his home and 
 of the schoolhouse in which his education was 
 begun. The people of Feme Run soon real- 
 ized that the name of their town, which before 
 had hardly been heard of outside the State, 
 was now linked with the name of Arthur 
 Feme, which was known wherever the story of 
 San Juan Hill was known. They were eager 
 to show at once to Arthur Feme their appre- 
 ciation of his intrepid service at the front and 
 to prove to the outside world that Feme Run 
 was not unequal to the responsibilities entailed 
 upon it as proprietary of so distinguished a 
 citizen.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 279 
 
 When it was learned that Feme had re- 
 covered from his wound and was coming home 
 on leave of absence, Feme Run determined 
 to receive him in a manner that should be 
 worthy of the occasion. But when Feme 
 heard of this he declined to participate in the 
 plan. He wrote the committee which had 
 communicated with him on the subject that he 
 was grateful for the interest of his neighbors, 
 but that he did not deserve such a tribute as 
 they wished to pay him, and that he could not, 
 in self-respect, accept it. He wished to go 
 home quietly and to mingle with his friends 
 quietly, but anything beyond that would be 
 distasteful, and most of all the public reception 
 which they so generously proposed. 
 
 Feme Run was not to be balked of its pur- 
 pose, however, by what it was pleased to praise 
 as Feme's modesty, and though he had de- 
 ferred the date of his intended arrival in order 
 to avoid any ambush which his hospitable 
 townspeople might lay for him despite his 
 wishes, the committee did not find it impos- 
 sible to enter into a conspiracy with his 
 family and thus ascertain when his return 
 might be counted on. 
 
 That was why, one afternoon in September
 
 28o Red Blood and Blue 
 
 as the train moved out from Mavistoc for 
 Feme Run, Arthur Feme found himself under 
 guard of two members of the committee who 
 had been sent to meet him and bring him in 
 on time. 
 
 At first'he was for backing out, and threat- 
 ened to get off at one of the way stations ; but 
 the committeemen laughingly informed him 
 that they had been delegated especially to 
 prevent any such strategy on his part, and that 
 they must deliver him at Feme Run, " dead or 
 alive." No miscarriage of their plans was to 
 be thought of now. Elaborate preparations 
 for his reception had been made. " Oodles " 
 of money had been spent for bunting and fire- 
 works. The street from the depot to the 
 Academy was already decorated with flags 
 and streamers, and provisions for its illumina- 
 tion at night were ready. A parade had been 
 organized, headed by the Mavistoc company of 
 militia, which had preceded him on the morn- 
 ing train. The governor of the State had 
 consented to deliver the address of welcome, 
 and was already at Feme Run for that sole 
 purpose; while at considerable expense and 
 trouble a cannon had been secured to fire a 
 salute. Feme Run had " laid herself out to do
 
 Red Blood and Blue 281 
 
 herself proud, and the show could n't be pulled 
 off without Hamlet." 
 
 There was no answer to such arguments 
 as these. The affair was beyond the control of 
 Feme. He could not withdraw now without 
 appearing ungratefully and churlishly incon- 
 siderate of his friends. He resigned himself 
 to the situation with a feeling of helplessness 
 that oppressed him for the rest of the short 
 journey. The committeemen missed in him 
 the old-time geniality that had made him so 
 well liked, but they attributed the change to 
 the fatigue of travel and the effect of his ill- 
 ness. His talk was spasmodic. Much of the 
 time he was silent, leaning back inanimately 
 and staring through the car-window. 
 
 At one little station he suddenly bent for- 
 ward, peering intently at the name nailed to 
 the small depot-building. " Outcault" Fernc 
 read, and sank back into his seat with an un- 
 decipherable expression on his quickened face. 
 
 "That must be a new station," he remarked 
 in a constrained voice. " I do not remember 
 to have noticed it the last time I passed over 
 the road." 
 
 " Yes," answered one of the committeemen. 
 " Old Bob Pennypacker would n't rest till we
 
 282 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 put a depot there, and when we come to name 
 it we called it Outcault, after Andy. We thought 
 he deserved that much, long 's we would n't a- 
 had the road except for him; though it's all 
 the same to Andy, I reckon, layin' in some 
 ditch 'over there in Cuby. I s'pose you didn't 
 see Andy over there, did you, Arthur ? " 
 
 " Yes ; once. He was wounded, but he was 
 pushing on alone up San Juan Hill." 
 
 " You don't say so ! He must have been hit 
 again, or he 'd a-got to the top. Po' devil ! " 
 
 Feme was pale, and made no response. Nor 
 did he speak again until rallied by his escort 
 as the train rolled into Feme Run. 
 
 It was after seven o'clock, and the line of 
 the main street was marked by many lights. 
 Rockets were ascending, and the cannon was 
 booming on Academy Hill. A brass band was 
 playing as the train stopped, and there were 
 cheers as Feme stepped to the platform. He 
 soon found himself in an open carriage, seated 
 with the governor and the mayor and the chair- 
 man of the Reception Committee. After con- 
 siderable delay and a confusion of orders, the 
 procession was formed and moved off, the band 
 and the Mavistoc Militia leading, then coming 
 Feme's carriage and the carriages of various 
 functionaries of the occasion, followed on foot
 
 Red Blood and Blue 283 
 
 by all the societies of the county that were 
 equipped with uniforms or regalia. 
 
 The march was through the principal street 
 to the Academy, at the other end of the town. 
 As Feme's carriage passed between the side- 
 walks, noisy with welcome, and the illuminated 
 houses, gay with the national colors and waving 
 handkerchiefs, he was numbly observant, as far 
 as he was observant at all, of the display of the 
 flag on every hand. This was something new 
 in Feme Run ; at least, in his memory : for 
 since the war between the States, until now, 
 the Stars and Stripes had been rarely seen in 
 the town. 
 
 At last the parade, which was to Feme like 
 some ruthless dream, was over, and his carriage 
 had halted before the dingy old schoolhouse 
 known as the Academy, in whose auditorium 
 the remaining ceremonies were to take place. 
 Feme got out of the vehicle blindly, torpidly, 
 and walked with some one through the cheering 
 on-lookers up to the entrance of the building. 
 The vestibule was crowded, and already he had 
 absently shaken the hands of several people 
 near whom he was thrown and who seemed 
 eager to greet him, when he heard the voice of 
 Miss Juliana Torrance at his side. Victoria 
 was with her, and Ingalls, the Nashville man
 
 284 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 whom Feme had come to look upon as one of 
 his rivals. 
 
 Victoria's face was radiant as she welcomed 
 Feme, and for the first time he forgot 
 momentarily the humiliation of the part he 
 was playing. 
 
 " I suppose," smiled Victoria as she pressed 
 his hand, " that I ought to stand in awe of you 
 after you have so distinguished yourself. But I 
 do not ; I am just glad." 
 
 Her words and her manner thrilled him 
 tumultuously, though at the same time cutting 
 him with an acuter realization of the despic- 
 able masquerade by which he had won them. 
 But despicable as he felt that masquerade, so 
 powerful was the intoxication of winning 
 such a light from Victoria Torrance's eyes 
 and such warmth from her voice that he 
 walked on into the hall with alert step and 
 gallant bearing ; and when the applause broke 
 from the audience as he was conducted to 
 his seat on the stage, he had, for the moment 
 at least, not only a feeling of passive sub- 
 mission, but one that very closely approached 
 positive elation.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 285 
 
 XXVIII 
 
 ANDREW OUTCAULT, on the departure of the 
 hospital ship that bore Arthur Feme to Mon- 
 tauk Point, had been among those so near 
 death that they were left in Cuba. But he had 
 also been among those who refused to die, and 
 when at last he was able and at liberty to start 
 on his return home it was in ignorance of the 
 published report of his death in battle. 
 
 At Feme Run that report, official as it ap- 
 parently was, and never corrected, had been 
 generally accepted as conclusive. It was 
 known, however, that Cap'n Pow Hallibur- 
 ton had not yet abandoned all hope. Cap'n 
 Pow had seen too much of war and knew 
 too many private soldiers yet living who had 
 been reported killed on the field, to resign 
 himself, without further investigation, to the 
 certainty of Outcault's death. That investi- 
 gation he proposed to make by a personal 
 trip, if necessary, to Santiago, so soon as, with 
 cooler weather and improved conditions in
 
 286 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 the fever-stricken region, there should be less 
 obstruction to such a journey. In the mean 
 time Cap'n Pow read all the news from the 
 camps and the hospitals, and not only re- 
 fused to file for probate, but even to open, 
 the will which had been left with him by 
 Andrew Outcault 
 
 Not knowing that he had been advertised as 
 dead, or that the letter he had written Cap'n 
 Pow from Cuba had not yet been received, 
 Outcault set out for home with a light heart 
 and fast returning strength. Instead of going 
 by way of Mavistoc, he went around by Kel- 
 way, thinking to stop there a day to look after 
 his phosphate lands ; but almost the first per- 
 son he met at Kelway, after convincing him- 
 self that Outcault was still alive, informed him 
 of the news of his death that was credited at 
 Ferae Run, and Outcault without delay had 
 secured a horse and continued his journey. 
 
 As he neared Feme Run he was puzzled by 
 the display of rockets over the town. 
 
 " What are they doing down there ? " he 
 asked of a pedestrian whom he overtook in 
 the darkness. 
 
 " What ? Them there sky-rockitin's ? " 
 
 "Yes."
 
 Red Blood and Blue 287 
 
 " My sakes ! don't you know what that 's 
 fer ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Land alive ! I reckon you must a-come 
 from a long distance, did n't you ? " 
 
 " Considerable distance." 
 
 " I knowed it ! Well, I reckon you 've heerd 
 tell of Arthur Feme, ain 't you ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " 
 
 " Co'se ! Well, that 's the place yonder you 
 see them rockitin's that Arthur Feme was 
 horned an 1 raised at befo' he went to the waw 
 an' started up all that potrack a-savin' the 
 whole Nunited States army after the other 
 awficers was killed, an' a-climbin' that Sandy 
 June Hill an' everlastin* breshin' the jackets 
 of them Dagoes an' Spinige, an' all them do- 
 in's down yonder in Cuby." 
 
 "Ah! I see." 
 
 " Well, Arthur, he 's jus' gittin' home, an' 
 they 're a-givin' him a big blowout to-night." 
 
 " So that explains the rockets? " 
 
 " Yes-sir-ree ! An' a heap mo 'n rockits. 
 They's a cannon didn't you hear her jus' 
 now? an' a gran' promenade from the depot 
 thoo the town, windin' up with a big powwow 
 at the 'Cademy ; an' dog my cats, it 's jus' my
 
 288 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 luck I won't make it in time to see the haft of 
 it! " 
 
 Outcault thanked his informant and rode on, 
 laughing as the countryman flung after him : 
 
 " Say, mister, it 's too dark to git a good look 
 at you, but ef I ain't heerd yo' voice befo' 
 somers-er-ruther, I 'm a Dutchman ! " 
 
 The Academy was on the side of the town 
 entered by the Kelway pike, and Outcault 
 soon saw the illuminated windows of the 
 familiar structure. The village itself seemed 
 deserted, and he cantered on to the Academy 
 without finding any one on the streets. The 
 " powwow " in the Academy had evidently be- 
 gun, for as he dismounted in the grove that 
 surrounded the building he could hear the 
 voice of a speaker and catch glimpses of the 
 intent throng in the hall. Feeling sure that 
 Cap'n Pow Halliburton was there, Outcault 
 was in no haste to ride on home, and tying his 
 horse, he started toward the entrance of the 
 hall. 
 
 But it occurred to him that so sudden a 
 return of the dead to life might create more of 
 a stir than would be agreeable to himself and 
 conducive to the equanimity of his friends in 
 the audience. He therefore went around to
 
 Red Blood and Blue 289 
 
 one side of the house, taking a position against 
 a tree near an open window, where he could 
 hear and see without being observed himself. 
 
 A glance revealed that the hall was crowded, 
 two thirds of those seated being women, while 
 many men stood in the rear and others occu- 
 pied, in solemn constraint, the rows of chairs 
 on the stage. 
 
 The assemblage reminded Outcault of the 
 old Commencement Day gatherings, always 
 the largest known in Feme Run, except, of 
 course, those drawn by the circus. The 
 governor was speaking ; but paying little heed 
 to the florid periods, Outcault gave most of 
 his attention to the audience. His first quest 
 was Victoria Torrance, whom he soon dis- 
 covered sitting a few yards away from the win- 
 dow through which he was looking, and his 
 eyes lingered on the sure-lined profile, standing 
 out to him in luminous relief against the nega- 
 tive blur of hundreds of other faces. 
 
 Finally, following the direction of her gaze, 
 Outcault saw not the speaker, who had gestic- 
 ulated himself to one extreme corner of the 
 stage, but Arthur Feme, sitting impassively 
 near the centre. 
 
 There was something in that impassiveness 
 '9
 
 290 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 that fixed Outcault's scrutiny. It was not 
 Arthur Feme as Outcault, as Feme Run, knew 
 him. The face, always alive, even in repose, 
 was now vacant ; the eyes were dull ; and there 
 was in the attitude of the man as he sat in his 
 chair an utter lack of any appearance of in- 
 terest in, or perception of, what was going on 
 about him, that was strikingly uncharacteristic. 
 His pallor, Outcault reflected, might be at- 
 tributable to his confinement in hospital, but 
 that could not explain his apparent petrifaction. 
 
 There was no change in Feme's position or 
 aspect as the governor concluded with fervid 
 peroration and took his seat amid generous 
 applause ; nor when the mayor arose and an- 
 nounced that the governor having welcomed 
 Feme Run's distinguished son in behalf of the 
 State, Captain Powhatan Halliburton would 
 now perform that pleasant duty in behalf of the 
 county and the city ; nor when Cap'n Pow him- 
 self emerged from those banked in the rear of 
 the stage and walked down to the table in 
 front. 
 
 Cap'n Pow was received by the audience with 
 a demonstration even more pronounced than 
 the clapping of hands and stamping of feet 
 which had been accorded the governor, several
 
 Red Blood and Blue 291 
 
 shouts from the rear of the house also greeting 
 the captain as he stood forth. 
 
 " Now we '11 have it, boys ! " whooped a 
 strong tenor voice. 
 
 " Give 'em fits, Cap'n Pow ! " roared the 
 bass of Little Ony Swango. 
 
 Cap'n Pow, pouring a glass of water from 
 the pitcher on the table, and taking a sip, 
 while he gracefully swept back his beard, bowed 
 his best, which was as good as any man's 
 best, buttoned the bottom button only the 
 bottom button of his broadcloth, velvet- 
 collared frock, and began. 
 
 " Ladies and gentlemen," was his opening, 
 dwelling labially on the " ladies " and adding 
 " and gentlemen " as a pendent formality. 
 
 At first he spoke without haste or fire, with 
 equable modulation and temperate movement, 
 but it was not long before his gestures were 
 continuous and violent, though never awk- 
 ward, while the flow of his words became tor- 
 rential, and his voice rang as high and bell-like 
 as it ever could have done when he was in 
 the thick of the fray with Forrest. He drew 
 copiously from Grecian and Roman myth and 
 history ; he quoted liberally from Scott, Moore, 
 and Byron ; he studded his periods with meta-
 
 292 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 phoric " stars," " constellations," " shields," 
 " bucklers," " white plumes," " gonfalons," 
 " escutcheons," " scrolls of fame " and " letters 
 of living light." He extolled the supremacy of 
 Middle Tennessee as " the core of creation," 
 and pictured Arthur Ferae as " the flower of 
 its chivalry." 
 
 Painting the glory Feme had won in the 
 sight of all men, Cap'n Pow then came to the 
 heart of his address. " The world knows and 
 has acclaimed," he said, " the prowess of Arthur 
 Ferae in war. Our illustrious chief executive 
 has given voice to the pride which the people 
 of our Commonwealth feel in the public career 
 of her valiant son. But it is for me to testify 
 to the admiration and love in which he is held, 
 and has always been held, by his neighbors 
 and companions. And speaking to this point, 
 I say here, and I say it without fear of success- 
 ful impeachment or impugnment, that no lad 
 ever grew up to a straighter, nobler manhood, 
 none ever had soul whiter for immaculate honor 
 nor thews stronger for courageous deed, none 
 ever more realized the composite ideal of the 
 Bayard and the Lion-Hearted, sans peur et sans 
 reproche, than he who is so modestly the re- 
 cipient of the testimonial of affection and pride 
 we are here to pay."
 
 Red Blood and Blue 293 
 
 Cap'n Pow soared on in this strain for some 
 time, when he added : " I will conclude this 
 phase of my remarks, ladies and gentlemen, 
 with one more poetical gem. I have already 
 enriched my poor words with borrowed beams 
 from some of the most resplendent orbs in the 
 immortal galaxy of poesy, but to my mind 
 nothing could be so pertinent here as the 
 poem which I am now going to repeat to you. 
 It was written by one who shows that his hand 
 is for the pen as well as for the sword. It was 
 written by a boy at school, and given in to his 
 teacher as a ' composition.' It was preserved 
 by that teacher, and only to-day was furnished 
 to me by him that I might thus share it with 
 you to-night. It was written, you may be sur- 
 prised to hear, ladies and gentlemen, by a lad 
 while a pupil in this very Academy, no less 
 a personage than Arthur Feme himself. Thus 
 it runs." 
 
 Here Cap'n Pow unfolded a sheet of paper 
 and read a well-turned ode, doing full justice, 
 with his resounding elocution, to its lofty 
 sentiment. 
 
 "Ladies and gentlemen," he continued, 
 as he replaced the paper in his pocket, " did 
 not the boy who penned these lines fore-
 
 294 R e d Blood and Blue 
 
 shadow the man we honor to-night? Can 
 any one deem it strange that the spirit which 
 in the boy lifted up his voice in such celes- 
 tial consecration to Valor, Honor, and Truth 
 was the same spirit which in the man lifted 
 up his arm, in the face of blood and death, to 
 plant the flag of liberty and law on the last 
 foothold of Old-World despotism and degrada- 
 tion, over a New-World continent redeemed ? " 
 
 When the acclamations which this flight 
 evoked died away Cap'n Pow, after a drink 
 of water, resumed : 
 
 "Now, ladies and gentlemen," momen- 
 tarily in a lower and slower voice, "one 
 word more and I am done; and you will 
 pardon me, I know, if it impinges on per- 
 sonality. But I could not repeat that poem 
 worthily, I could not stand here on this oc- 
 casion honestly, if I did not say this word. 
 
 "You all know, my friends and fellow-citi- 
 zens, that I was once in a war myself. Many of 
 you have heard me declare time and again 
 and declare it with a fervor and feeling that be- 
 spoke my sincerity that if Nathan Bedford 
 Forrest had been in command at Fort Donel- 
 son, that war would have resulted in a victory 
 for the Southern Confederacy. I believed
 
 Red Blood and Blue 295 
 
 that then, and I believe it now. But, my 
 fellow-citizens, in the light of this later war, 
 in the light of Manila Bay and Santiago, in 
 the light of the common patriotism and the 
 common glory of our boys in the South and our 
 boys in the North, of those who have come 
 back to us and those who fell, in the light of 
 that flag which they have lifted anew in the 
 sight of us all, I thank my God and I thank 
 my God that I have lived to see it and to say 
 it that Nathan Bedford Forrest was not in 
 command at Fort Donelson ! " 
 
 As Cap'n Pow sat down the audience rose, 
 and "the old rebel yell," starting from "the 
 boys " in the back of the hall, was taken up 
 all over the house by masculine throats, while 
 women waved handkerchiefs excitedly, and 
 some of them gave utterance to queer little 
 hysterical cries. 
 
 There was a like disorder on the stage, 
 and some of the men who had been seated 
 there were rushing over to grasp Cap'n Pow's 
 hand. 
 
 As the commotion subsided, Outcault saw 
 Feme standing, white and still, by the 
 speaker's table. There was another great 
 cheer from the audience at this, and then a
 
 196 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 waiting hush. But there was something in 
 the strange look of Feme that kept the audi- 
 ence on its feet. 
 
 "There are a few things which I wish to 
 speak of myself," he said, "because I am the 
 only one who can speak of them. " 
 
 It seemed as if there was a stricture of his 
 throat, and his words were almost inaudible. 
 
 "Louder!" came from different parts of 
 the hall. 
 
 Feme turned and swallowed a gulp of water 
 in the glass by his side; then, with his hand 
 resting on the table, he began speaking 
 again, more distinctly, but in the monotone 
 of one who had set himself a task and was 
 determined to get through it : 
 
 "This is a welcome home which any man 
 might be inexpressibly proud of, if he de- 
 served it. I tried to escape it because I 
 knew I did not deserve it. If I had deserved 
 it more I should have escaped it, despite the 
 preparations which I learned, on the train to- 
 day, you had made to receive me. But it is 
 immaterial to go back to that. Although it 
 was not my desire to receive these honors 
 from you, I entered this hall with my mind 
 fully made up to play out to the end the
 
 Red Blood and Blue 297 
 
 hypocritical part circumstances had assigned 
 to me. I knew I could play it success- 
 fully and safely, for the only witness who 
 could have exposed my baseless pretensions, 
 Andrew Outcault, is dead. Let me confess 
 more. Unwilling as I was at first to play 
 this part, yet for a time, since I have been 
 in your presence I was not only reconciled to 
 the part, but I believe I can say that I had a 
 feeling of exultation in the attentions you 
 were heaping upon me. I am resolved, how- 
 ever, not to keep up this deception longer. 
 Your kindness to me is meant for a brave 
 man; it is given to a coward." 
 
 The audience had been breathless, bewil- 
 dered, but now its silence was broken by a 
 few protesting exclamations. 
 
 "No!" 
 
 "We know you!" 
 
 Feme went on, in the same colorless way, 
 and told of his share in the assault on San Juan 
 Hill : the weakness and fear that had unnerved 
 him as he approached the field of battle; his 
 fall in the grass and his decision to lie there 
 out of danger; the appearance and action of 
 Andrew Outcault ; and the consequent charge 
 up the hill in search of death to end disgrace.
 
 298 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 "That," he concluded, "is the real story of 
 the man you are hailing to-night as a hero. 
 I have been almost irresistibly tempted to 
 remain as silent in its suppression as the lips 
 of Andrew Outcault are in death, as they 
 would be in life if he had survived; but it 
 is some relief to me to find that at the last 
 moment I have at least drawn back from 
 that." 
 
 As he returned listlessly to his seat, the 
 audience for two or three seconds made no 
 sound or movement, except that here and 
 there a handkerchief was carried to the eyes 
 of some woman. Then one of the voices in 
 the rear cried out : 
 
 "Good for you, Arthur! We don't take 
 nothin' back ! " 
 
 At the same time the governor sprang up, 
 and crossing over to Ferae, seized his limp 
 hand, and said very distinctly, and somewhat 
 stagily : 
 
 " I want to salute publicly a man who has 
 just done the bravest thing that I have ever 
 witnessed." 
 
 Then, turning to the audience, he added : 
 " I am sure, fellow-citizens, that you will 
 agree with me in this, though we may all dis-
 
 Red Blood and Blue 299 
 
 agree with our young friend here in his self- 
 accusation of cowardice. I remember reading 
 a description by General Grant of his sensa- 
 tions when going into his first battle that 
 were somewhat similar to those which Cap- 
 tain Ferae has confessed, and all of you must 
 have known or heard of like experiences by men 
 whose courage was unquestioned. But there 
 is a higher courage than that which faceth 
 the cannon's mouth or taketh a city, and, 
 depreciating himself as he did, feeling as 
 he did, who can say that Captain Feme has 
 not but now conspicuously illustrated that 
 courage ? " 
 
 There was some applause, some shuffling of 
 position among the auditors. There were 
 also a few cheers, and one very vigorous one 
 outside the window where Outcault was 
 standing. 
 
 As the governor had risen, Outcault had 
 been strongly impelled to rush into the 
 building and utter some such words as the 
 governor spoke. But, after all, he could say 
 nothing more than the governor had said, and 
 Outcault felt that such an appearance by 
 him now would be not only superfluous, but 
 theatrical and tawdry. And as the mayor, at
 
 300 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 this point, after some remarks in keeping 
 with those of the governor, was declaring the 
 programme of the evening at an end and was 
 dismissing the audience, Outcault mounted 
 his horse and rode homeward.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 301 
 
 XXIX 
 
 DAYLIGHT was slitting the blinds of Feme's 
 room next morning as he finally fell into the 
 sleep of exhaustion. When he awoke, and 
 the veil of oblivion, which lingers a little 
 after the eyes have opened, suddenly lifted, 
 he turned his face to the pillow, as if to 
 shut out again the world that had been lost to 
 him as he slept. Presently the clock struck, 
 and he began counting the strokes, thinking 
 that they would number perhaps seven or 
 eight. When they stopped at two, he raised 
 his head in incredulity and looked at the 
 window. The sunbeams, sifting through the 
 blinds, confirmed the clock : it was afternoon. 
 He sank back in bed, and lay staring at the 
 ceiling. What mattered the hour? Better 
 here, with the blinds drawn, he thought, than 
 anywhere else. 
 
 A servant knocked and entered, laying a 
 note on the table, and quietly leaving the 
 room. Feme indifferently reached over and
 
 302 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 took the note. As he held it before him in 
 the dim light, something in the superscription 
 caused him to leap up and throw open the 
 blinds. He was not mistaken: it was the 
 handwriting of Victoria Torrance. He stared 
 at the envelope with straining eyes, and then, 
 abruptly tearing it open, read : 
 
 "Will you not come to see me to-day? I shall 
 look for you. 
 
 "VICTORIA TORRANCE." 
 
 He read it over and over; and after he 
 knew every word and letter of it, and the 
 writing was blurred by the film that had come 
 over his eyes, he stood holding the sheet 
 before him. 
 
 "God bless her!" he finally said, in a 
 choking voice, as he replaced the note in the 
 envelope. 
 
 He bathed and dressed mechanically. Vic- 
 toria Torrance had thought of him to-day ! 
 She had sent for him, after last night ! Ah, 
 the nobility and sweetness of such a woman ! 
 Could any one, be he never so frail, fall be- 
 yond her pity and sympathy ? 
 
 Her pity and sympathy! And that was all 
 he could hope for now.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 303 
 
 But it was Victoria Torrance he was to 
 see; it was Victoria Torrance he was nearing 
 at every stride of his horse as he rode out the 
 avenue that afternoon. And, unconscious of 
 it though he was, the strides grew swifter as 
 the distance shortened; and when he dis- 
 mounted at The Mounds he hastened into the 
 house with much of the alertness of his boy- 
 hood in his step and something of their old 
 light in his eyes. 
 
 As he waited Victoria's coming his heart- 
 beats were strong and fast. It was not hope ; 
 but if it was not hope it was something the 
 power of her presence that for the time dis- 
 pelled despair. 
 
 He did not wait long. Almost immedi- 
 ately he heard her rapid descent of the stairs, 
 and he was on his feet as she entered the 
 room. 
 
 She went up to him quickly, both hands 
 outstretched; and in their warm pressure, 
 and in the depths of her eyes, there was an 
 infinity of womanly joy and solicitude. 
 
 "I am so glad, so more than glad to see 
 you," she said, in the soft fulness of a voice 
 whose sincerity could never be doubted. 
 *' Were you surprised to get my note ? " she
 
 304 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 asked as they sat down. But without pausing 
 for an answer, she continued: "I did not 
 know when you would come, and I did not 
 wish to wait. I thought of writing you a 
 long letter this morning, but I preferred to 
 talk to you." 
 
 "I am fortunate in that," Feme answered, 
 with an attempt at lightness; "for now I 
 have both your note and the talk." 
 
 "I wanted to tell you how proud we 
 were of your action last night. It was 
 indeed, I have never known anything so 
 fine." 
 
 Feme looked at her a moment in silence, 
 and something of the lack-lustre expression 
 of the preceding evening had returned to his 
 eyes as they fell before hers. 
 
 " Fine ! " he replied dully. " Do you call 
 it fine for a man who has played the impostor 
 to confess the truth at the eleventh hour, 
 when the consequences of his deception be- 
 come more than he can endure ? " 
 
 " You have no right to think of it in that 
 way," Victoria replied, with spirit. "You 
 do yourself and your friends the greatest 
 injustice. You have always been given to 
 self-depreciation, when you have less cause
 
 Red Blood and Blue 305 
 
 than any one I know. Don't you suppose 
 we all understand that if you were placed in 
 even any apparently false position by the 
 reports of your conduct in Cuba you were not 
 responsible for the mistake? Could you, 
 while you were at the point of death in the 
 hospital, prevent your superior officers and 
 the newspapers from making a hero of you? 
 And why should n't they have made a hero 
 of you? You can't deny you did the things 
 they say you did? What difference does it 
 make if there was a time when you felt some 
 some trepidation? Was not that natural? 
 Do not all brave men say that there are such 
 times in their own experiences ? " 
 
 "I simply know," he answered obstinately, 
 without looking up at her, "that I was not a 
 brave man." 
 
 "You are the bravest man I have ever 
 known," she resented. "The mere fact that 
 while you took such a wrong view of the case 
 and felt so poignantly that you were what 
 you call an impostor, you made that voluntary 
 confession last night, proves a higher courage 
 than any that can be shown on the battle-field. 
 That is the way, I want you to be sure, your 
 friends feel about it."
 
 306 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 He looked at her now gratefully, but still 
 sombrely. 
 
 "This is like you," he said. "You always 
 put the most generous construction on things. 
 But " he paused, and then continued reso- 
 lutely "you do not yet know all. I am 
 not certain I intended to be honest enough 
 to tell you all until this moment. I was 
 never reconciled to the trick which circum- 
 stances played me until I met you at the 
 Academy door last night. I can't say that 
 I was reconciled to it then; but somehow, 
 for a while, after I left you and passed on 
 into the hall, I felt a sort of blind gratifica- 
 tion in it, and a confirmed determination 
 to carry it through to the end. When I said 
 good-bye to you last spring I was conscious 
 that there was something lacking in me 
 that was necessary to the man who would 
 impress you, as it had been my life-long de- 
 sire to impress you ; but when I saw you last 
 night it came over me God knows why, 
 except for the friendliness of your greeting 
 that perhaps the lack in me might be 
 supplied by by what they said I had done 
 in Cuba, and what those people were wel- 
 coming me for. And I was contemptible
 
 Red Blood and Blue 307 
 
 enough to wish to win you by keeping up 
 the fraud." 
 
 Victoria looked at him sadly for several 
 seconds after he had spoken, tears coming 
 into her eyes. 
 
 "That made your words last night braver 
 still," she said gently. 
 
 He sprang to his feet, as if the bonds of 
 his self-control had suddenly snapped. 
 
 " Ah, do not look at me, do not speak to 
 me like that ! " he expostulated. 
 
 He started as if to walk across the room, 
 but abruptly turned again to her, gripping 
 the back of the chair from which he had 
 risen. "There is something yet that you 
 would say, that you fear would hurt me. 
 What is it?" he demanded. "Let me know 
 everything ! " 
 
 She stood, sorrowful and anguished, before 
 him. 
 
 "There is something I ought to say," she 
 owned, miserably. "When you went away 
 last spring I told you that there might be, 
 some time, a possibility of of my feeling 
 for you something stronger than admiration 
 and friendship." 
 
 " And now," Feme's whitening lips formed,
 
 308 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 " you would tell me that there is even no such 
 possibility." 
 
 "I must," she answered with a pitiful firm- 
 ness. "There is no longer a possibility; 
 there can never be." 
 
 Feme looked away, for a moment, through 
 the window. When he confronted Victoria 
 again his face seemed to have been resolved 
 into its elemental clay. 
 
 "Good-bye," he murmured, taking her 
 hand. "You see," with a ghastly half -smile, 
 "even you, after that wretched affair of last 
 night " 
 
 He cut off his words as if unable further 
 to trust his voice, and moved to leave. 
 
 She caught his hand imperatively. "No, 
 no ! " she cried. " You wrong me, as well as 
 yourself. If anything could have turned my 
 heart to you, it would have been last night. 
 But " 
 
 "But?" he asked, after waiting for her to 
 go on. 
 
 "I have no heart for any one." 
 
 " Then do not answer me if I am too 
 insistent it is another's? " 
 
 For an instant her eyes fell before his 
 searching gaze ; a light of rose dawned in her
 
 Red Blood and Blue 309 
 
 face, then waned to gray ; she raised her head 
 and looked at Feme frankly, unreservedly. 
 
 "Yes," was her quiet answer. "It is an- 
 other's in his grave." 
 
 Feme was very still for a little, his fixed 
 expression slowly softening. 
 
 "Forgive me," he begged humbly. "I had 
 not suspected; and I have been thinking only 
 of myself. " 
 
 As he was leaving she accompanied him to 
 the veranda. 
 
 "You must come out to see us again 
 often if " 
 
 She seemed to assume he would understand 
 what she would have said. 
 
 "Yes, if," he responded desolately; "but 
 can I ? Could any man in my place? " 
 
 Just then Rosalie Kemp drove up, and 
 Feme went to help her from the cart. She 
 was beaming as she called out: 
 
 " How splendid it is to find you both here ! " 
 
 She held out her hands to Feme and 
 jumped to the ground. 
 
 " And I 'm really, truly, perfectly delighted 
 to see you again, Arthur, I 'm going to call 
 you Arthur still, even if you have got to be 
 such a high-and-mighty personage. And I 'm
 
 3io Red Blood and Blue 
 
 crazy to have you tell me about your won- 
 derful experiences and all ! And, oh ! have 
 you heard the latest news? Of course you 
 have! Isn't it just too good to be true, 
 though ? Arthur Feme, between you and 
 Andrew Outcault Feme Run never was in 
 such a stew ! " 
 
 Victoria, her breathing suspended, and her 
 face as if suddenly touched by the spectral 
 glare of an arc light, asked faintly, "What 
 news?" while Feme started with an ejacu- 
 latory gasp : 
 
 "Andrew Outcault! What about Andrew 
 Outcault ? " 
 
 "Oh," Rosalie cried, with the zest of one 
 who is first to tell it, "then you have not 
 heard! Andrew Outcault has come back! 
 He is not dead ! He never has been dead ! I 
 saw him myself, in town, not an hour ago ! " 
 
 Victoria did not stir or speak. Only that 
 her face was a little paler, that her eyes 
 were fixed upon Rosalie with a startled, wide 
 bewilderment, and that her handkerchief had 
 slipped to the ground from her hand, it might 
 have been that she did not hear. 
 
 " Thank God ! " Feme spoke in all sincer- 
 ity, for the first time in his life pretending
 
 Red Blood and Blue 311 
 
 not to see a lady's handkerchief that had been 
 dropped. "It is good news, Miss Rosalie," 
 he said ; but he was looking at Victoria as 
 he held close her nerveless hand for a brief 
 moment in parting, during which a little 
 color crept into her face, and her lids fluttered, 
 and hid the eyes that would not meet his 
 earnest scrutiny. 
 
 "Yes," she finally agreed, a feeble note of 
 constraint in the tone; then adding, with an 
 uncertain little smile and a forced effort at 
 lightness: "But, oh, Rosalie! you burst upon 
 us so abruptly with your good news ! " 
 
 "I am off to hunt him up." Feme quickly 
 relieved her of the necessity of prolonging the 
 tension of the situation. "And you, Miss 
 Rosalie may I not come over to-morrow and 
 have that talk ? " 
 
 "You may, and you must!" Rosalie com- 
 manded. 
 
 She shyly slipped her hand over one of 
 Victoria's as Feme walked away to his horse; 
 and Feme, never once glancing back, rode 
 off down the drive and into the Avenue before 
 the silence between the two girls, whose eyes 
 followed him, was broken.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 XXX 
 
 IT was the evening of the next day that 
 Andrew Outcault called at The Mounds. If 
 he had yielded to his impulse he would have 
 made that call twenty-four hours sooner; but 
 he had reflected that the preceding day was 
 the first after the return of Arthur Feme, 
 who would unquestionably wish to spend 
 much of it at The Mounds; and for once 
 Outcault subordinated his own desires in 
 deference to a rival. Moreover, it is only 
 justice to him to say that as he awaited 
 Victoria's appearance, in the same room in 
 which Feme had awaited her the day before, 
 Outcault' s thought was of Feme rather than 
 of himself, his immediate purpose being to 
 do what he could, if he could do anything 
 and if it were necessary to do anything to 
 help Feme to fair play. Outcault felt that 
 he could think of himself later. 
 
 Unlike Feme, Outcault waited long for 
 Victoria; and when at last he heard her com-
 
 Red Blood and Blue 313 
 
 ing it was with a slow step, that once halted 
 for a second on the stairs. 
 
 She paused again in the doorway, and 
 Outcault, as he rose, not noting the momen- 
 tary hesitation, the stir of the chiffon at her 
 throat, the soft sub-color of the clear face, 
 was conscious of only the fathomless splendor 
 of her eyes. 
 
 She advanced to meet him, giving him her 
 hand, on her lips a faint smile that seemed 
 only to intensify the luminous gravity and 
 mystery of the eyes. 
 
 Outcault could never recall the exact words 
 of the greeting by either. Most likely each 
 simply spoke the other's name as Outcault 
 clasped her hand. As they found seats Vic- 
 toria, patently bent upon some speech that 
 was commonplace and courteous, said : 
 
 "You must let me add my congratulations, 
 upon your return, to the many you have 
 already received." 
 
 "And you, I hope," replying with a slight 
 affectation of levity in his tone, "will not 
 consider me unduly precipitate in seeking 
 your congratulations." 
 
 He felt at once that this was not what he 
 cared to say, or what he ought to say. He
 
 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 was not always as felicitous in his small-talk 
 with women as he might have been if his 
 training had been different. Victoria an- 
 swered this remark by ignoring it. She had 
 a way sometimes, as Outcault had before dis- 
 covered, of answering in that manner remarks 
 which it did not suit her to discuss, or which 
 she deemed too trivial or too causeless for 
 verbal recognition. And it was a graceful 
 and usually a pleasing way ; for it left upon 
 Outcault the impression of her failure to see 
 his crassness, or of her conviction that he 
 should take for granted the insufficiency of 
 the self-indictment which such utterances of 
 his generally implied. 
 
 She directed the talk now easily in a chan- 
 nel that was wholly impersonal to himself, 
 and Outcault followed as easily, until he 
 chose to take the lead. 
 
 "I saw you at the Academy night before 
 last," he then said, a little abruptly. 
 
 " You ! " in surprise. " I did not know you 
 were there." 
 
 "I was there, but incognito. I had just 
 got into town, and stopped at the Academy 
 while the governor was speaking. I remained 
 outside, at one of the windows. the. one
 
 Red Blood and Blue 315 
 
 nearest where you were sitting. You did not 
 see me, but you must have heard me. I 
 cheered Arthur Feme's speech even louder 
 than I cheered his charge up San Juan Hill." 
 
 "Wasn't it fine?" a new light kindling in 
 her eyes. " I wanted to cheer, too, but " 
 
 She knew that she had wanted to cry as 
 well, and she left her sentence unfinished. 
 
 "Perhaps there are other men capable of 
 making such a speech," Outcault commented; 
 "but I don't know of any other one who would 
 have thought it necessary." 
 
 "That is the quarrel I have with him," 
 Victoria agreed. 
 
 " He was always a peculiar fellow, as you 
 must know. His sense of honor is so deli- 
 cately developed that it seems sometimes to 
 amount to morbidness. Maybe if he had 
 been roughing it in the open air lately, in- 
 stead of being cooped up in a hospital, he 
 wouldn't have given way to the doldrums the 
 other night. While one can't help admiring 
 him for such pluck, yet such over-fastidious- 
 ness must try the patience of his warmest 
 admirers. What business had he the other 
 night to go digging up and making mountains 
 of his secret qualms when he was starting into
 
 316 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 battle? It is actions that count. How many 
 brave men would be left to the world if a 
 brave man never knew in his unconfessed 
 moments an instant's flinching or dread?" 
 
 Outcault soon saw that Feme needed no 
 advocate here; that Victoria understood and 
 appreciated the man far better than he was 
 understood and appreciated by the masculine 
 mind of Outcault himself. And so, after 
 sitting a few minutes longer, during which 
 he did not touch upon the subject that had 
 been forbidden by Victoria when he had last 
 seen her, and did not speak of himself beyond 
 bald replies to the few perfunctory inquiries 
 which Victoria volunteered, Outcault left, 
 satisfied with himself in that he had made 
 just such a call as he had intended to make, 
 and ignorant of the fact that for the first 
 time his departure was watched by Victoria, 
 through the meshes of the curtains, with 
 thoughtful and puzzled eyes.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 317 
 
 XXXI 
 
 IT was very different when he saw her next, 
 more than a week later. 
 
 Two days before, he had said good-bye to 
 Arthur Feme, who was leaving for service 
 with his regiment in the Philippines; and 
 this still October afternoon, as Outcault set 
 out for The Mounds, he had not gone many 
 paces before he was riding in that plunging 
 gallop which he liked when the tide of domi- 
 nant self was running full. 
 
 In the short walk from his horse to the 
 veranda of The Mounds, his head was high 
 and his lungs were deep with the old elation, 
 pulsing with which, under the lust of battle, 
 he had beat through the Cuban jungle. 
 
 In the house he did not sit down while he 
 waited for Victoria, but walked from one win- 
 dow to another, and from that to the portrait 
 of the last James York Torrance. Victoria 
 came in almost at once, but Outcault had 
 turned to the window again. 
 
 He whirled as he heard the rustle of her
 
 318 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 skirts behind him, his strong white teeth 
 showing between his smiling lips and the 
 light in his eyes leaping at the answering 
 smile, which he knew was such a one as he 
 had never seen before, except in his dreams. 
 
 "Get your hat," he said buoyantly, as he 
 clasped her hand. " Let us go outside. No 
 one is fit to live who would stay under a roof 
 such a day as this." 
 
 She gave a little exclamation of delight. 
 "That is what I should like! Wait for me 
 just a second." 
 
 She was gone in an instant, and Outcault 
 laughed gently and happily. She was almost 
 running she was running ! Victoria Tor- 
 ranee running ! 
 
 She returned quickly, a little flushed, and 
 the red lips parted in a smile, a brighter, 
 more childlike smile than that which she had 
 given him two minutes before. 
 
 "Which way shall we go?" she asked, as 
 they left the house. 
 
 "The beech woods?" 
 
 " The beech woods ? " 
 
 They spoke simultaneously, and they looked 
 at each other, and laughed with each other 
 at this miraculous coincidence.
 
 Red Blood and Blue 319 
 
 They set off down the path to the brook, 
 a narrow path and occasionally a little steep, 
 he thrashing along on the edge of it beside 
 her, his step springing more elastically once as 
 her dress brushed him, and once again as he 
 caught for an instant her hand at an ugly 
 place in the descent. 
 
 They chatted lightly, aimlessly : the perfec- 
 tion of the day, the balsam of the air, the uni- 
 versal calm, the mystery of the haze that 
 softened sky and atmosphere and water. 
 
 At the foot-bridge they stopped and, leaning 
 on the rail, looked down at the little stream. 
 Another mood, more in keeping with the 
 dreamy October day, seemed to have come sud- 
 denly to both. They watched a dappled young 
 trout below them, and Outcault's thoughts were 
 full of the new world around him, the new 
 presence beside him. It was as natural, as 
 good to be silent together as a moment before 
 it had been to be frivolous and garrulous 
 together. In either mood here was a Vic- 
 toria Torrance he had never known before ; a 
 Victoria Torrance who no longer withstood or 
 repulsed him, but who was altogether human 
 in her companionship, sweet in the dignity of 
 womanhood, fresh in the spontaneity of girl-
 
 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 hood, his perfect complement in gayety or 
 gravity, such a Victoria Torrance as he had 
 long ago determined that she should be, some 
 day, for him. 
 
 " Is it not beautiful ? " she said, more as if 
 in revery than in inquiry. 
 
 "Is not everything beautiful?" he answered 
 in a deep voice. 
 
 As they walked on across the bridge Out- 
 cault, his eyes lingering on the water, saw 
 floating down from the upper stream an object 
 which arrested his step as he bent over the 
 rail for a better view. 
 
 " Ah ! " he said with a quick smile, " yonder 
 is something I want ! " 
 
 He hurried down to the water's edge and, 
 stooping over, seized a magnolia leaf, its enamel 
 glistening wet. With a boyish laugh he sprang 
 up the bank to Victoria again. 
 
 " It looks," he exclaimed, " like the same 
 leaf I found a long time ago I know it comes 
 from the same place. And I stuck it in my 
 hat and sallied forth to rescue a beautiful prin- 
 cess imprisoned in a mediaeval castle." 
 
 " How chivalric ! " Victoria smiled. 
 
 " And I think I have succeeded. Come into 
 the beech woods, and I will tell you about it."
 
 Red Blood and Blue 321 
 
 Ah ! the magic of the beech woods on a 
 mellow October day. Surely Cap'n Pow Hal- 
 liburton never included these among the con- 
 ditions which he tested in the prosecution of 
 his favorite theory ; or if he did, he must 
 have forgotten to provide with them a man 
 who is born with the secret of mastery and a 
 woman who has learned the blessedness of 
 surrender. 
 
 When Outcault and Victoria entered the 
 beech woods it was with thoughtless words 
 and fitful laughter. When they emerged it 
 was in silence and with the ineffable calm 
 and joy of the day itself on their counte- 
 nances. 
 
 The first to speak was Victoria. 
 
 Outcault was twirling slowly by its stem the 
 magnolia leaf which he had taken from the 
 brook. Victoria, into whose eyes the haze of 
 the wonderful autumnal sunlight seemed to 
 have come, raised them to Outcault's and 
 reached out her hand. 
 
 " Give it to me, please," she said softly. 
 
 Outcault started and looked at her a moment 
 without understanding. 
 
 " Oh, this ! " 
 
 He smiled slightly a smile that no one
 
 3 22 Red Blood and Blue 
 
 had ever seen on his face before that walk in 
 the beech woods and his hand was not quite 
 steady as he gave the leaf to her. 
 
 A little later, as he was not looking, she 
 pressed its cool surface for a moment to her 
 glowing cheek. 
 
 " Tell me," he said, soon afterwards, " when 
 you began to think of me like this." 
 
 "I am not sure," she answered, gazing off 
 across blended meadow and wood to the dim 
 line that marked the river's course. " Perhaps 
 it began on that day in the cotton-field, but I 
 did not know until " 
 
 " Until ? " he insisted, after a moment's 
 waiting. 
 
 " Until they said you had been killed." 
 
 They walked in silence a few steps, when 
 she added, as if she found it easier to speak 
 now: 
 
 "Then I knew. And I knew, also, how 
 insignificant were all the things that had 
 seemed to stand between us." 
 
 The sun had disappeared beneath the hori- 
 zon, but it seemed to shine on Outcault's face, 
 as it still shone on one rugged crag in the 
 distance. 
 
 On the foot-bridge, Outcault stopped again
 
 Red Blood and Blue 323 
 
 and pointed toward the uplands known as the 
 barrens, rising just beyond the fertile acres of 
 what had been the Dead Sea. 
 
 " Look, Victoria," he said. " There is the 
 top of just one hill over there that the sun still 
 lights." 
 
 "Yes, I can see it," she answered as she 
 stood beside him. 
 
 " That is the highest point of the barrens 
 which are not barrens at all, or ought not to 
 be. It adjoins my land over there, and I have 
 long thought it one of the most beautiful spots 
 in the country, though no one, at least in our 
 time, has lived there except old Dru Wingate. 
 I have chosen it, with your approval, for the 
 home which I am to make for us." 
 
 She looked silently at the sun-touched 
 knoll; then her eyes, turning to the left, 
 swept her own home before they rested on 
 Outcault. 
 
 " Do you not like The Mounds? " she asked 
 uncertainly. 
 
 "As well, perhaps, as any home that is 
 already made ; but " 
 
 " What pleases you best will please me best," 
 she interposed. " I only wish to go where you 
 wish to go. Besides, if I did not "
 
 324 e Blood and Blue 
 
 Their hands had come together as he looked 
 down at her in mute and tender interrogation. 
 
 "If I did not," a smile nestling in her 
 uplifted eyes, " I suppose you would carry 
 me off with you, anyway."
 
 BY HARRISON ROBERTSON 
 
 If I Were a Man 
 
 The Story of a New Southerner 
 
 i6mo. 75 cents. (The Ivory Series.) 
 
 " If I were a Man " is a story of love and politics. 
 It narrates incidents in the recent political history of 
 Kentucky which are so like the actual facts that a non- 
 resident of that State can hardly convince himself that 
 he is not reading a real history. Review of Reviews. 
 
 The story is the main thing in "If I were a Man." 
 It moves right along with the charm of rapid narrative. 
 
 " DROCH," in Life. 
 
 Harrison Robertson has again proved that the mixed 
 field of American politics affords unequalled opportu- 
 nities for surprises, dramatic situations, treacheries, 
 renunciations, tragedy, and comedy. The Chicago 
 Evening Post. 
 
 As a study in practical politics, written with abundant 
 dash, and revealing shrewd insight into conditions which 
 prevail, not in Kentucky alone, the book is good to read. 
 
 The Nation.
 
 IF I f^ERE A MAN 
 
 To say that it is we'll written and altogether readable 
 does not serve the turn of criticism ; it is more. Short, 
 swiftly moving, the current of the narrative never flags. 
 The story gives a sharp, strong picture, unquestion- 
 ably touched with the fascination of genius. The 
 Independent. 
 
 It is a good story from every point of view, carefully 
 written, well balanced, and thoroughly wholesome. 
 There is promise in it of strong, sane work in the 
 future. The Outlook. 
 
 Mr. Robertson has created a manly young American, 
 and dowered him with the manly virtues without mak- 
 ing him a prig. ..." If I were a Man " is a sprightly 
 story, thoroughly in touch with real life, and distinc- 
 tively American. Detroit Free Press. 
 
 It has remained for Mr. Harrison Robertson to treat 
 for the first time the political life in Kentucky as the 
 making of a career, and he has done it ingenuously and 
 interestingly in his book, " If I were a Man." In pre- 
 senting his initial book, Mr. Robertson begins unques- 
 tionably the fulfilment of the rich promise that his early 
 work held out. Louisville Times. 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 Publishers, 153-157 Fifth Ave., New York
 
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 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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