Steve conceived himself to be neglected. Carefully propped by his stick and a roadside boulder he hearkened to orders and marked manœvres until he was aweary. He had saved the Second Corps and it wasn’t noticing him! He grew palely dogged. “They got ter notice me. Gawd! I’ve seen a man thanked in General Orders ’n’ promoted right up for less’n I’ve done!” In addition to a sense of his dues a fascination kept him where he was. The unwonted feeling of superiority protected him from fear; no army would too closely question its saviour! The rag about his foot, as he assured himself every now and then with a glance, was good and bloody. So well fixed and with such a vantage-point, he gave way to a desire just to see how the boys looked after so long a time. Vanguard and artillery had gone forward; down the road he saw coming at a double an infantry brigade; further back the main body had been halted. He gathered from a comment of officers passing that there was a conviction that it was only Hunter’s rear guard before them in the pass. Cavalry scouts spurring back, clattering down dangerous paths from adjoining crests, justified the conviction. The Federal main body was pressing on upon the Salem road while the rear guard gained time. And here the blue rear guard, observing from its crags that the ambuscade had been discovered, opened fire. The grey guns now in battery on a knoll of hemlocks answered. The Blue Ridge echoed the thunders. It was near sunset and the brigade coming up was bathed in a slant and rich light. With a gasp Steve recognized the horse and rider at its head. He raised and bent his arm and hid his face, only looking forth with one frightened eye. Cleave and Dundee went by without recognizing him, without, as far as he could tell, glancing his way. Steve chose again to feel injury. “Gawd, Colonel! if I did try to get even with you once, ain’t you a general now, ’n’ ain’t I jest saved your life ’n’ all your men?—’n’ you go by without lookin’ at me any more’n if I was dirt! If you’d been a Christian ’n’ stopped, I could ha’ told you you were goin’ home to find your house burned down ’n’ your sister dyin’! I jest saved your life ’n’ you don’t know it! I jest saved this army ’n’ don’t any one know it.... O Gawd! here’s the Sixty-fifth!” Steve could not stand it. “Howdy, boys!” he said. “Howdy, howdy!” The water came into his eyes. He saw through a mist the colours and the slanted bayonets and the ragged hats or no hats and the thin, tanned faces. A drop gathered and rolled down his cheek. There was a momentary halt of the Sixty-fifth, the last rank abreast of the boulder by the road. _Forward!_ and the regiment moved on, and Steve marched with it. “Yaas, you didn’t know it, but I jest saved you boys ’n’ the army! I was comin’ along the road—I got a sore foot—’n’ I looked up ’n’ seed the guns—”