HALCOM. What have you found? HEZEKIAH. Guess them critters have gone a fishin’. Hain’t had a houter of a pop for half an hour, except one, as I hope ter holler. (_Halcom discovers Zina._) HALCOM. What is this, Hezekiah? HEZEKIAH. Wall, I’ll be darned if ye hain’t got me. Do ye s’pose they lay out round here nights? HALCOM. (_Looking closely._) She sleeps. (_Tries to wake her and fails._) She is unconscious. (_Turns her face towards himself, starts._) HEZEKIAH. Hain’t she handsome? HALCOM. She is indeed beautiful! The child is sick, and perhaps starving. Give me your canteen. (_Bathes her face._) Call some of the pickets. (_Bathes still. Hez. goes out L. U. E., and soon returns with Barney and a stretcher._) BARNEY. Indade now. Do thim blackguards murder beautiful little girruls like that? HALCOM. The child is seriously sick. Take her to my surgeon, and say it is my desire that every effort shall be made in her behalf. Handle her carefully. (_Hez. and Bar. put her on the stretcher, raise her tenderly, and bear her out at L. U. E._) Poor child! She is the victim of brutality, or the hardships of the front have nearly killed her. (_Hesitates._) So much like my mother’s face! (_Bows head. Enter Sherman R. U. E., in heavy military cloak._) SHERMAN. Well, Halcom, have the blues got you again? (_Darken stage gradually._) HALCOM. General, you must not remain here! We are within rifle range of the enemy’s pickets. It is exceedingly dangerous. SHERMAN. It is growing too dark for sharpshooters to operate. HALCOM. The country cannot afford to have you exposed. SHERMAN. Pray, why not? HALCOM. We are engaged in a desperate march to the sea. The army is too far from its base to exist without a competent leader. If you should fall, what next? SHERMAN. Half my men, sir, are fit to command. HALCOM. General, you are too sanguine of the capabilities of others. I repeat again, you _must_ be careful. The safety of the army demands it. SHERMAN. Halcom, you are too anxious for the safety of every one but yourself. The army has a common impression that you are the most daring, reckless officer at the front. HALCOM. It matters but little if I fall. SHERMAN. Why, my dear sir, your life— HALCOM. Is worth nothing for myself. If it please heaven that I live to see a full and earnest liberty here, with all the stars of the old flag still lingering there, it matters little what becomes of me. SHERMAN. Halcom, I never see you smile! There is some terrible misfortune hidden behind your sad, melancholy face, you have never yet revealed. Desperate; rash; impetuous; you have won your double stars at twenty-eight. A brilliant military dash that thrills the army; and you fell back so quietly to the seclusion of your quarters, and never seem to hope or look for reward. But for this, your life has been a blank to me. HALCOM. There is nothing in the history of my family I could wish to conceal.