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006 - A Night in the Water · Army Life in a Black Regiment

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Speaker 1: Chapter six of Army Life in a Black Regiment. This
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Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by f N H. Army Life
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Speaker 1: in a Black Regiment by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Chapter six,
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Speaker 1: A Night in the Water. Yes, that was a pleasant
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Speaker 1: life on picket in the delicious early summer of the South,
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Speaker 1: and among the endless flowery forests of that blossoming isle.
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Speaker 1: In retrospect, I seemed to see myself adrift on a
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Speaker 1: horse's back amid a sea of roses. The various outposts
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Speaker 1: were within a six mile radius, and it was a long,
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Speaker 1: delightful gallop day and night. I found a faint impression
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Speaker 1: that the moon shone steadily every night for two months.
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Speaker 1: And yet I remember certain periods of such dense darkness
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Speaker 1: that in riding through the wood paths, it was really
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Speaker 1: unsafe to go beyond a walk for a fear of
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Speaker 1: branches above and roots below. And one of my officers
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Speaker 1: was once shot at by a rebel scout who stood
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Speaker 1: unperceived at his horse's bridle. To those doing outpost duty,
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Speaker 1: on an island, however large the mainland has all the
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Speaker 1: fascination of forbidden fruit, and on a scale bounded only
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Speaker 1: by the horizon. Emerson says that every house looks ideal
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Speaker 1: until we enter it, and it is certainly so if
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Speaker 1: it be just the other side of those hostile lines.
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Speaker 1: Every grove in that blue distance appears enchanted ground, and
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Speaker 1: yonder loitering. Gray black leading his horse to water in
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Speaker 1: the furthest distance makes one thrill with a desire to
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Speaker 1: hail him, to shoot at him, to capture him, to
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Speaker 1: do anything to bridge this inexorable dumb space that lies
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Speaker 1: between a boyish feeling, no doubt, and one that time
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Speaker 1: diminishes without effacing. Yet it is a feeling which lies
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Speaker 1: at the bottom of many rash actions in war, and
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Speaker 1: of some brilliant ones. For one, I could never quite
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Speaker 1: outgrow it, though restricted by duty from doing many foolish
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Speaker 1: things in consequence, and also restrained by reverence for certain
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Speaker 1: confidential advisers whom I had always at hand, and who
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Speaker 1: considered it their mission to keep me always on short
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Speaker 1: rations of personal adventure. Indeed, most of that part of
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Speaker 1: entertainment in the army devolves upon scouts detailed for the
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Speaker 1: purpose volunteer age de camp and newspaper reporters, other officers
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Speaker 1: being expected to be about business more prosaic. All of
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Speaker 1: the excitements of war are quadrupled by darkness. And as
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Speaker 1: I rode along our outer lines at night and watch
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Speaker 1: the glimmering flames which at regular intervals starred the opposite
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Speaker 1: river shore, the longing was irresissible to cross the barrier
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Speaker 1: of dusk and see whether it were men or ghosts
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Speaker 1: who hovered round those dying embers. I had yielded to
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Speaker 1: these impulses in boat adventures by night, for it was
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Speaker 1: a part of my instructions to obtain all possible information
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Speaker 1: about the rebel outposts. And fascinating, indeed, it was to
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Speaker 1: glide along noiselessly, paddling with a dusky guide through the
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Speaker 1: endless intricacies of those southern marshes, scaring the reed birds
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Speaker 1: which wailed and fled away into the darkness, and penetrating
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Speaker 1: several miles into the ulterior between hostile fires, where discovery
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Speaker 1: might be death. Yet there were drawbacks as to these enterprises,
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Speaker 1: since it is not easy for a boat to cross
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Speaker 1: still water, even on the darkest night without being seen
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Speaker 1: by watchful eyes. And moreover, the extremes of high and
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Speaker 1: low tide transformed so completely the whole condition of those
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Speaker 1: rivers that it seems very nice calculation to do one's
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Speaker 1: work at precisely the right tune to vary the experiment.
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Speaker 1: I had often thought of trying a personal reconnaissance by
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Speaker 1: swimming at a certain point, whenever circumstances should make it
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Speaker 1: an object. The opportunity at last arrived, and I shall
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Speaker 1: never forget the glee with which, after several postponements, I
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Speaker 1: finally rode for a little before midnight, on a night
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Speaker 1: which seemed made for the purpose. I had, of course,
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Speaker 1: kept my own secret, and was entirely alone. The great
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Speaker 1: Southern fireflies were out, not haunting the low ground merely
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Speaker 1: like ours, but rising to the loftiest tree tops with
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Speaker 1: weird illumination and anon hovering so low that my horse
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Speaker 1: often stepped higher to avoid them. The dewy cherokeree roses
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Speaker 1: brushed my face, the solemn chuck Will's widow croaped her incantation,
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Speaker 1: and the rabbits raised phantom like across the shadowy road.
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Speaker 1: Slowly in the darkness, I followed the well known path
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Speaker 1: to the spot where our most advanced outposts were stationed,
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Speaker 1: holding a causeway which thrust itself out far across the
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Speaker 1: separating river, thus fronting a similar causeway on the other side,
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Speaker 1: while a channel of perhaps three hundred yards, once traversed
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Speaker 1: by a ferry boat, rolled between. At low tide, this
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Speaker 1: channel was the whole river and the broad oozy marshes
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Speaker 1: on each side. At high tide, the marshes were submerged,
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Speaker 1: and the stream was a mile wide. This was the
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Speaker 1: point which I had selected to ascertain the numbers and
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Speaker 1: position of the picket on the opposite causeway was my
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Speaker 1: first object, as it was a matter on which no
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Speaker 1: two of our officers agreed to this point. Therefore, I rode,
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Speaker 1: and dismounting, after being duly challenged by the sentinel at
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Speaker 1: the causeway head, walked down the long and lonely path.
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Speaker 1: The tide was well up, though still on the flood
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Speaker 1: as I desired, and each visible tuft of marsh grass might,
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Speaker 1: but for its motionless, have been a prowling boat. Dark
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Speaker 1: as the night had appeared, the water was pale, smooth
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Speaker 1: and phosphorescent, and I remember that the phrase wan water
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Speaker 1: so familiar in the Scottish ballads, struck me just then
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Speaker 1: as peculiarly appropriate, though its real meaning is quite different.
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Speaker 1: A gentle breeze for which I had hoped for a ripple,
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Speaker 1: had utterly died away, and it was a warm, breathless
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Speaker 1: southern night. There was no sound but for the faint
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Speaker 1: swash of the coming tide, the noises of the reed
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Speaker 1: birds in the marshes, and the occasional leap of a fish.
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Speaker 1: And it seemed to my overstrained ears as if every
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Speaker 1: footstep of my own must be heard for miles. However,
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Speaker 1: I could have no more postponements, and the thing must
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Speaker 1: be tried now or never. Reaching the farther end of
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Speaker 1: the causeway, I found my men couched like black statues
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Speaker 1: behind the slight earthwork they are constructed. I expected that
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Speaker 1: my proposed immersion would rather bewilder them, but knew that
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Speaker 1: they would say nothing. As usual. As for the lieutenant
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Speaker 1: on that post, he was a steady, matter of fact,
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Speaker 1: perfectly disciplined Englishman who wore a crimean medal and never
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Speaker 1: asked a superfluous question in his life. If I casually
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Speaker 1: remarked to him, mister Hooper, the General has ordered me
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Speaker 1: on a brief personal reconnaissance to the planet Jupiter, and
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Speaker 1: I wish you to take care of my watch, lest
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Speaker 1: it should be damaged by the procession of the equinoxes.
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Speaker 1: He would have responded with a brief all right, sir,
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Speaker 1: and a quick military gesture, and have put the thing
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Speaker 1: in his pocket. As it was, I simply gave him
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Speaker 1: the watch and remarked that I was going for a swim.
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Speaker 1: I do not remember ever to have experienced a greater
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Speaker 1: sense of exhilaration than when I slipped noiselessly into that
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Speaker 1: placid water and struck out on the smooth, eddying current
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Speaker 1: for the opposite shore. The night was so still and lovely,
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Speaker 1: My black statues looked so dreamlike at their posts behind
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Speaker 1: the low earthwork. The opposite arm of the causeway stretched
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Speaker 1: so invitingly from the rebel main. The horizon glimmered so
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Speaker 1: low around me, For it always appears lower to a
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Speaker 1: swimmer than even to a Norseman. That I seemed floating
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Speaker 1: in such concave globe, some magical crystal of which I
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Speaker 1: was in the enchanted center. With each little ripple of
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Speaker 1: my steady progress, all things hovered and changed, The stars
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Speaker 1: danced and knotted. Above where the stars ended, the great
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Speaker 1: southern fireflies began, and closer than the fireflies, there clung
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Speaker 1: round me a halo of phosphorescent sparkles from the soft
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Speaker 1: salt water. Had I told any one of my purpose,
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Speaker 1: I should have had warnings and remonstrances enough. The few
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Speaker 1: negroes who did not believe in alligators believed in sharks.
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Speaker 1: The skeptics as to sharks were orthodox in respect to alligators,
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Speaker 1: while those who rejected both had private prejudices. As to
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Speaker 1: snapping turtles. The surgeon would have threatened intermittent fever, the
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Speaker 1: first assistant rheumatism, and the second assistant congestive chills. Non
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Speaker 1: swimmers would have predicted exhaustion, and swimmers cramp, and all
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Speaker 1: of this before coming within bullet range of any hostilities
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Speaker 1: on the other shore. But I knew the folly of
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Speaker 1: most alarms about reptiles and fishes. Man's imagination, peoples the
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Speaker 1: water with many things which do not belong there, or
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Speaker 1: prefer to keep out of his way if they do.
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Speaker 1: Fevers and congestions were the surgeon's business, and I always
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Speaker 1: kept people to their own department cramp and exhaust were
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Speaker 1: dangers I could measure as I had often done. Bullets
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Speaker 1: were a more substantial danger, and I must take the chance.
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Speaker 1: If a loon could dive at the flash, why not I?
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Speaker 1: If I were once ashore, I should have to cope
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Speaker 1: with the rebels on their own ground, which they knew
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Speaker 1: better than I. But the water was my ground, where
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Speaker 1: I too had been at home from boyhood. I swam
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Speaker 1: as swiftly and softly as I could, although it seemed
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Speaker 1: as if the water never had been so still before.
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Speaker 1: It appeared impossible that anything uncanny should hide beneath that
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Speaker 1: lovely mirror. And yet when some floating wisp of reeds
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Speaker 1: suddenly cooled itself around my neck, or some unknown thing
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Speaker 1: drifting deeper coldly touch my foot, it caused that undefinable
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Speaker 1: shudder which every swimmer knows, and which especially comes over
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Speaker 1: one at night. Sometimes a slight sip of brackish water
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Speaker 1: would enter my lips, for I naturally tried to swim
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Speaker 1: as low as possible, and then would follow a slight
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Speaker 1: gasping and contest again choking. That seemed to me a
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Speaker 1: perfect convulsion, for I suppose the tendency to choke and
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Speaker 1: sneeze is always enhanced by the circumstances that one's life
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Speaker 1: may depend on keeping still, just as yawning becomes irresistible
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Speaker 1: where to yawn would be social ruin, and just as
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Speaker 1: one is sure to sleep in a church if one
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Speaker 1: sits in a conspicuous pew. At other times, my unguarded
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Speaker 1: motion would create a splashing, which seemed, in the tension
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Speaker 1: of my senses, to be loud enough to be heard
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Speaker 1: at Richmond, although it really mattered not, since there are
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Speaker 1: fishes in those rivers which make as much noise on
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Speaker 1: special occasions as if they were misguided young whales. As
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Speaker 1: I drew near the opposite shore, the dark causeway projected
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Speaker 1: more and more distinctly to my fancy at least, and
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Speaker 1: I swam more softly, still utterly uncertain as to how far,
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Speaker 1: in the stillness of air and water my phosphorescent course
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Speaker 1: could be traced by eye or ear. A slight ripple
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Speaker 1: would have saved me from observation. I was more than
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Speaker 1: ever sure, and I would have whistled for a fair
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Speaker 1: wind as eagerly as any sailor, but that my breath
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Speaker 1: was worth to me more than anything. It was likely
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Speaker 1: to bring. The water became smoother and smoother, and nothing
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Speaker 1: broke the dim surface except a few clumps of rushes
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Speaker 1: of my unfortunate head. The outside of this member gradually
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Speaker 1: assumed to its inside a gigantic magnitude. It had always
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Speaker 1: annoyed me at the hatters from a merely animal's bigness,
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Speaker 1: with no consummate contents to show for it, and now
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Speaker 1: I detested it more than ever. A physical feeling of
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Speaker 1: turgescence and congestion in that region, such as swim as
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Speaker 1: often feel, probably increased the impression. I thought, with envy
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Speaker 1: of the Aztec children, of the headless horseman of sleepy
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Speaker 1: Hollow of Saint somebody with his head tucked under his
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Speaker 1: arm Plotanus was less ashamed of his whole body than
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Speaker 1: I of this inconsiderate and stupid appendage. To be sure,
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Speaker 1: I might swim for a certain distance under water, but
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Speaker 1: that accomplishment i'd for a retreat, for I knew that
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Speaker 1: the longer I stayed down, the more surely I should
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Speaker 1: have to snort like a walrus when I came up again.
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Speaker 1: And to approach an enemy with such a demonstration was
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Speaker 1: not to be thought of. Suddenly, a dog barked. We
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Speaker 1: had certain information that a pack of hounds was kept
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Speaker 1: at a rebel station a few miles off on purpose
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Speaker 1: to hunt runaways, and I had heard from the Negro's
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Speaker 1: almost fabulous accounts of the instinct of these animals. I
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Speaker 1: knew that although water baffled their scent, they yet could
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Speaker 1: recognize in some manner the approach of any person across
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Speaker 1: the water as readily as by land. And the vigilance
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Speaker 1: of all dogs by night every traveler among southern plantations
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Speaker 1: has ample demonstration. I was now so near that I
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Speaker 1: could dimly see the figures of men moving to and
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Speaker 1: fro upon the end of the causeway, and could hear
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Speaker 1: the dull knock when one struck his foot against a
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Speaker 1: piece of limber, as my first object was to ascertain
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Speaker 1: whether there were sentinels at that time. At that precise point,
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Speaker 1: I saw that I was approaching the end of my experiment.
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Speaker 1: Could I have once reached the causeway unnoticed? I could
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Speaker 1: have lurked in the water beneath its projecting timbers, and
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Speaker 1: perhaps made my way along the main shore, as I
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Speaker 1: had known fugitive slaves to do while coming from that side.
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Speaker 1: Or had there been any ripple on the water to
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Speaker 1: confuse the aroused and watchful eyes. I could have made
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Speaker 1: a circuit and approached the causeway at another point, though
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Speaker 1: I had already satisfied myself that there was only a
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Speaker 1: narrow channel on each side of it, even at high tide,
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Speaker 1: and not as on our side, a broad expanse of water. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: this knowledge alone was worth all the trouble I had taken,
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Speaker 1: and to attempt much more than this in the face
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Speaker 1: of a curiosity already roused would have been a waste
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Speaker 1: of future opportunities. I could try again, with the benefit
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Speaker 1: of this new knowledge, on a point where the statements
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Speaker 1: of the Negroes had always been contradictory. Resolving, however, to
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Speaker 1: continue the observation a little longer, since the water felt
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Speaker 1: much warmer than I had expected, and there was no
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Speaker 1: sense of chill or fatigue. I grasped at some whispers
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Speaker 1: of straw or rushes that floated nearby, gathering them around
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Speaker 1: my face a little, and then drifting nearer the wharf
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Speaker 1: in what seemed a sort of eddy was able without
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Speaker 1: creating further alarm, to make some additional observations on points
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Speaker 1: which it is not best now to particularize. Then, turning
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Speaker 1: my back upon the mysterious shore which had thus far
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Speaker 1: lured me, I sank slowly below the surface and swam
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Speaker 1: as far as I could under water. During this unseen retreat,
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Speaker 1: I heard, of course, all manner of gurglings and hollow reverberations,
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Speaker 1: could fancy as many rifle shots as I pleased, but
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Speaker 1: on rising to the surface, all seemed quiet, and even
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Speaker 1: I did not create as much noise as I should
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Speaker 1: have expected. I was now at a safe distance, since
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Speaker 1: the enemy were always chary of showing their boats, and
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Speaker 1: always tried to convince us they had none. What with
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Speaker 1: absorbed attention first and this submersion afterwards, I had lost
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Speaker 1: all my bearings, but the stars having been long out
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Speaker 1: of sight of my original point of departure. However, the
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Speaker 1: difficulties of the return were nothing. Making a slight allowance
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Speaker 1: for the flood tide, which could not yet have turned,
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Speaker 1: I should soon regain the place I had left. So
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Speaker 1: I struck out freshly against the smooth water, feeling just
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Speaker 1: a little stiffened by the exertion and with the occasional
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Speaker 1: chill running up the back of my neck, but with
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Speaker 1: no nips from sharks, no nudges from alligators, and not
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Speaker 1: a symptom of the fever an arg time. I could not,
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Speaker 1: of course measure one never can in a novel position.
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Speaker 1: But after a reasonable amount of swimming, I began to
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Speaker 1: look with a natural interest for the peer which I
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Speaker 1: had quitted. I noticed with some solicitude that the woods
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Speaker 1: along the friendly shore made one continuous shadow, and that
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Speaker 1: the line of low bushes on the long causeway could
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Speaker 1: scarcely be relieved against them. Yet I knew where they
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Speaker 1: ought to be. And the more doubtful I felt about it,
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Speaker 1: the more I put down my doubts, as if they
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Speaker 1: were unreasonable children. One could scarcely conceive of the alteration
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Speaker 1: made in familiar objects by bringing the eye as low
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Speaker 1: as the horizon, and especially by night, to distinguish the
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Speaker 1: foreshortening is impossible, and every low near object is equivalent
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Speaker 1: to one higher and more remote. Still I had the stars,
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Speaker 1: and soon my eye, more practiced, was unable to select
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Speaker 1: one precise line of bushes as that which marked the causeway,
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Speaker 1: and for which I must direct my course. As I
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Speaker 1: swam steadily, but with some sense of fatigue, towards this
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Speaker 1: phantom line, I found it difficult to keep my faith
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Speaker 1: steady and my progress true. Everything appeared to shift and
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Speaker 1: waver in the uncertain light. The distant trees seemed not
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Speaker 1: trees but bushes, and the bushes seemed not exactly bushes,
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Speaker 1: but might, after all be distant trees. Could I be
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Speaker 1: so confident that out of all this low stretch of
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Speaker 1: shore I could select the one precise point where the
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Speaker 1: friendly causeway stretched its long arm to receive me from
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Speaker 1: the water? How easily some tempter whispered at my ear?
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Speaker 1: Might one swerve a little on either side, and be
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Speaker 1: compelled to flounder over half a mile of ooz marsh
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Speaker 1: on an ebbing tide before reaching our own shore, and
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Speaker 1: that hospitable volley of bullets with which it would probably
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Speaker 1: greet me, had I not already Thus the tempter continued
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Speaker 1: been swimming rather unaccountably far, supposing me on a straight
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Speaker 1: track for that inviting spot where my sentinels and my
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Speaker 1: drapery were awaiting my return. Suddenly I felt a sensation
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Speaker 1: of fine ribbons drawn softly across my person, and I
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Speaker 1: found myself among some rushes. But what business had rushes
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Speaker 1: there or I among them? I knew that there was
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Speaker 1: not a solitary spot of shoal in the deep channel
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Speaker 1: where I supposed myself swimming, and it was plain in
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Speaker 1: an instant that I had somehow missed my course. I
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Speaker 1: must be getting among the marshes. I felt confident to
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Speaker 1: be sure that I could not have widely aired, but
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Speaker 1: was guiding my course for the proper side of the river.
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Speaker 1: But whether I had drifted above or below the causeway,
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Speaker 1: I had not the slightest clue to tell. I pushed
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Speaker 1: steadily forward with some increasing sense of lassitude, passing one
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Speaker 1: marshy eyelet after another, all seeming strangely out of place,
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Speaker 1: and sometimes just reaching out with my foot a soft,
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Speaker 1: tremulous shoal, which gave scarce the shadow of a support,
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Speaker 1: though even that shadow rested my feet. At one of
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Speaker 1: these moments of stillness, it suddenly occurred to my perception
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Speaker 1: what nothing but this slight contact could assured me in
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Speaker 1: the darkness that I was in a powerful current, and
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Speaker 1: that this current set the wrong way. Instantly, a flood
18:29
Speaker 1: of new intelligence came either I had unconsciously turned and
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Speaker 1: was rapidly nearing the rebel shore, a suspicion which, with
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Speaker 1: a glance at the stars corrected, or else it was
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Speaker 1: the tide itself which had turned, and which was sweeping
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Speaker 1: me down the river with all its force, and was
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Speaker 1: also sucking away at every moment the narrowing water from
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Speaker 1: that treacherous expanse of mud, out of whose horrible miry
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Speaker 1: embrace I had lately helped to rescue a shipwrecked crew.
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Speaker 1: Either alternative was rather formidable. I can just di thinkly
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Speaker 1: remember that, for about one half minute, the whole vast
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Speaker 1: universe appeared to swim in the same watery uncertainty in
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Speaker 1: which I floated. I began to doubt everything, to distrust
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Speaker 1: the stars, the line of low bushes for which I
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Speaker 1: was wearily striving, the very land on which they grew.
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Speaker 1: If such visionary things could be rooted anywhere. Doubts trembled
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Speaker 1: in my mind, like the weltering water, and that awful
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Speaker 1: sensation of having one's feet unsupported, which benumbs the spence.
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Speaker 1: Lumour's heart seemed to clutch at mine, though not yet
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Speaker 1: to enter it. I was more absorbed in that singular
19:35
Speaker 1: sensation of nightmare, such as the one may feel equally
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Speaker 1: when one lost by land or by water, as if
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Speaker 1: one's own position were all right, but the place looked
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Speaker 1: for had been somehow preternaturally abolished out of the universe.
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Speaker 1: At best, might not a man in the water lose
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Speaker 1: all his power of direction and so move in an
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Speaker 1: endless circle until he sank exhausted. It required a deliberate
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Speaker 1: and col rightious effort to keep my brain quite cool.
20:02
Speaker 1: I had not the reputation of being of an excitable temperament,
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Speaker 1: but the contrary. Yet I could at that moment see
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Speaker 1: my way to a condition in which one might become insane.
20:13
Speaker 1: In an instant. It was as if a fissure opened
20:17
Speaker 1: somewhere and I saw my way into a madhouse. Then
20:21
Speaker 1: it closed, and everything went on as before. Once in
20:25
Speaker 1: my life I had obtained a slight glimpse of the
20:27
Speaker 1: same sensation, And then, too strangely enough, while swimming in
20:31
Speaker 1: the mightiest ocean surge into which I had ever dared
20:33
Speaker 1: plunge my mortal body, Keats's hints at the same sudden
20:37
Speaker 1: emotion in a wild poem written among the Scottish Mountains.
20:42
Speaker 1: It was not the distinctive sensation which drowning men are
20:45
Speaker 1: said to have, that spasmodic passing. In review of one's
20:49
Speaker 1: whole personal history. I had no well defined anxiety felt,
20:54
Speaker 1: no fear was moved to, no prayer, did not give
20:57
Speaker 1: a thought to home or friends. Only it swept over me,
21:01
Speaker 1: as with a sudden tempest, that if I meant to
21:04
Speaker 1: get back to my own camp, I must keep my
21:06
Speaker 1: wits about me. I must not dwell on any other alternative,
21:10
Speaker 1: any more than a boy who climbs a precipice must
21:12
Speaker 1: look down. Imagination had no business here that way, madness lay.
21:18
Speaker 1: There was a sure somewhere before me, and I must
21:21
Speaker 1: get to it by the ordinary means, before the ebb
21:23
Speaker 1: laid bare the flats or swept me below the lower
21:26
Speaker 1: bends of the stream. That was all. Suddenly a light
21:31
Speaker 1: gleamed for an instant before me, as if from a
21:33
Speaker 1: house in a grove of great trees upon a bank,
21:36
Speaker 1: and I knew that it must come from the window
21:38
Speaker 1: of a ruined plantation building, where our most advanced outposts
21:41
Speaker 1: had their headquarters. The flash revealed to me every point
21:44
Speaker 1: of the situation. I saw at once where I was,
21:47
Speaker 1: and how I got there, And the tide had turned
21:50
Speaker 1: while I was swimming, and with a much briefer interval
21:53
Speaker 1: of slack water than I had been led to suppose
21:56
Speaker 1: that I had been swept a good way down stream
21:58
Speaker 1: and was far beyond all poss ssability of regaining the
22:01
Speaker 1: point I had left. Could I, however, retain my strength
22:05
Speaker 1: to swim one or two hundred yards further, of which
22:08
Speaker 1: I had no doubt, And if the water did not
22:10
Speaker 1: ebb too rapidly, of which I had more fear, then
22:13
Speaker 1: I was quite safe. Every stroke took me more and
22:17
Speaker 1: more out of the power of the current, and there
22:19
Speaker 1: might be an eddy to aid me. I could not
22:22
Speaker 1: afford to be carried much further, for there the channel
22:24
Speaker 1: made a sweep towards the wrong side of the river,
22:27
Speaker 1: and there was now no reason why I should not
22:28
Speaker 1: reach land. I could dismiss all fear, indeed, except for
22:32
Speaker 1: that of being fired upon by our own sentinels, many
22:35
Speaker 1: of whom were then new recruits, and with the usual
22:37
Speaker 1: disposition to shoot first and investigate afterwards. I found myself
22:42
Speaker 1: swimming in shallow and in shallower water, and the flat
22:45
Speaker 1: seemed almost bare where I neared the shore, where the
22:48
Speaker 1: great narled branches of the live oaks hung over the
22:50
Speaker 1: muddy bank. Floating on my back for noiselessness I paddled
22:54
Speaker 1: rapidly with my hands, expecting momentarily to hear the challenge
22:58
Speaker 1: of the picket and the ominous clicks so likely to follow.
23:01
Speaker 1: I knew that some one should be pacing to and
23:04
Speaker 1: fro along that beat, but could not tell at what
23:06
Speaker 1: point he might be at that precise moment. Besides, there
23:10
Speaker 1: was the faint possibility that some chatty corporal might have
23:13
Speaker 1: carried the news of my bath thus far along the line,
23:16
Speaker 1: and they might be partially prepared for this unexpected visitor. Suddenly,
23:21
Speaker 1: like another flash, came the quick quaint challenge, halt, who
23:25
Speaker 1: go dar for f friend with the countersign? I retorted,
23:30
Speaker 1: with chilly but conciliatory energy, rising at full length out
23:34
Speaker 1: of the shallow water, to show myself a man and
23:36
Speaker 1: a brother. Advance friend and give de countersign, responded the
23:41
Speaker 1: literal soldier, who at such a tune would have accosted
23:44
Speaker 1: a spirit of light or goblin. Damned, with no other formula,
23:48
Speaker 1: I advanced and gave it. He recognized my voice at once,
23:52
Speaker 1: and then, and there as I stood a dripping ghost
23:55
Speaker 1: beneath the trees, before him, the unconscionable fellow, wishing to
23:58
Speaker 1: exhaust upon me the utmost retortses of military hospitality deliberately
24:03
Speaker 1: presented arms. Now, a soldier on picket or at night
24:07
Speaker 1: usually presents arms to nobody, but a sentinel on camp
24:11
Speaker 1: guard by day is expected to perform that ceremony to
24:14
Speaker 1: anything in human shape that has two rows of buttons.
24:18
Speaker 1: Here was a human shape, but so utterly buttonless that
24:22
Speaker 1: it exhibited not even a rag to which a button could,
24:24
Speaker 1: by any earthly possibility be appended, buttonless even potentially. And
24:29
Speaker 1: my blameless Ethiopium presented arms to even this. Where then,
24:34
Speaker 1: are the theories of Carlyle, the axioms of Cyitaoracius, the inability
24:39
Speaker 1: of humanity to conceive a naked duke of Windlestraw addressing
24:43
Speaker 1: a naked house of lords, cautioning my adherent, however, as
24:47
Speaker 1: to do proprieties suitable for such occasion. Thenceforward, I left him,
24:51
Speaker 1: watching the river with renewed vigilance, and awaiting the next
24:54
Speaker 1: merman who should report himself. Finding my way to the building,
24:58
Speaker 1: I hunted up a sergeant and a blanket, got a
25:01
Speaker 1: fire kindled in the dismantled chimney, and sat before it
25:04
Speaker 1: in my single garment like a moist but undismayed Choctaw
25:08
Speaker 1: until horse and clothing could be brought round from the causeway.
25:12
Speaker 1: It seemed strange that the morning had not yet dawned,
25:14
Speaker 1: after the uncounted periods that must have elapsed. But when
25:17
Speaker 1: the wardrobe arrived, I looked at my watch and found
25:20
Speaker 1: that my night in the water had lasted precisely one hour.
25:25
Speaker 1: Galloping home, I turned in with the clarity and without
25:28
Speaker 1: a drop of whisky, and waked a few hours after
25:30
Speaker 1: in excellent condition. The rapid changes of which that department
25:35
Speaker 1: has seen so many, and perhaps to so little purpose,
25:38
Speaker 1: soon transferred us to a different scene. I have been
25:42
Speaker 1: on other scouts since then, and by various processes, but
25:47
Speaker 1: never with a zest so novel as was afforded by
25:49
Speaker 1: that night's experience. The thing got wind in the regiment
25:53
Speaker 1: and led to only one ill consequence, so far as
25:56
Speaker 1: I know. It rather suppressed away I had of lecturing
26:00
Speaker 1: the offices on the importance of reducing their personal baggage
26:03
Speaker 1: to a minimum, they got a trick of congratulating me
26:06
Speaker 1: very respectfully on the thoroughness with which I had conformed
26:09
Speaker 1: my practice to my precepts. End of Chapter six, recording
26:14
Speaker 1: by f n H. Visit www. Dot book ranger, dot
26:18
Speaker 1: co dot uk