CHAPTER XVI THE CLOUD IN THE SOUTH CHAPTER XVII PREPARATION CHAPTER XVIII THE CALL TO ARMS CHAPTER XIX THE BLOOD-RED SKY CHAPTER XX TWO BATTLES CHAPTER XXI THE LOGIC OF EVENTS CHAPTER XXII SELF-SENTENCED CHAPTER XXIII AN EARLY DREAM FULFILLED CHAPTER XXIV UNCHRONICLED CONFLICTS CHAPTER XXV A PRESENTIMENT CHAPTER XXVI AN IMPROVISED PICTURE GALLERY CHAPTER XXVII A DREAM CHAPTER XXVIII ITS FULFILMENT CHAPTER XXIX A SOUTHERN GIRL CHAPTER XXX GUERILLAS CHAPTER XXXI JUST IN TIME CHAPTER XXXII A WOUNDED SPIRIT CHAPTER XXXIII THE WHITE-HAIRED NURSE CHAPTER XXXIV RITA'S BROTHER CHAPTER XXXV HIS SOMBRE RIVALS CHAPTER XXXVI ALL MATERIALISTS CHAPTER XXXVII THE EFFORT TO LIVE CHAPTER XXXVIII GRAHAM'S LAST SACRIFICE CHAPTER XXXIX MARRIED UNCONSCIOUSLY CHAPTER XL RITA ANDERSON CHAPTER XLI A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM CHAPTER I AN EMBODIMENT OF MAY "Beyond that revolving light lies my home. And yet why should I use such a term when the best I can say is that a continent is my home? Home suggests a loved familiar nook in the great world. There is no such niche for me, nor can I recall any place around which my memory lingers with especial pleasure." In a gloomy and somewhat bitter mood, Alford Graham thus soliloquized as he paced the deck of an in-coming steamer. In explanation it may be briefly said that he had been orphaned early in life, and that the residences of his guardians had never been made homelike to him. While scarcely more than a child he had been placed at boarding-schools where the system and routine made the youth's life little better than that of a soldier in his barrack. Many boys would have grown hardy, aggressive, callous, and very possibly vicious from being thrown out on the world so early. Young Graham became reticent and to superficial observers shy. Those who cared to observe him closely, however, discovered that it was not diffidence, but indifference toward others that characterized his manner. In the most impressible period of his life he had received instruction, advice and discipline in abundance, but love and sympathy had been denied. Unconsciously his heart had become chilled, benumbed and overshadowed by his intellect. The actual world gave him little and seemed to promise less, and, as a result not at all unnatural, he became something of a recluse and bookworm even before he had left behind him the years of boyhood. Both comrades and teachers eventually learned that the retiring and solitary youth was not to be trifled with. He looked his instructor steadily in the eye when he recited, and while his manner was respectful, it was never deferential, nor could he be induced to yield a point, when believing himself in the right, to mere arbitrary assertion; and sometimes he brought confusion to his teacher by quoting in support of his own view some unimpeachable authority.