What remained of the right-hand column deception!" exclaimed Lieutenant Coleman. bore, to the soldiers, these surprising words, in sentences and parts of sentences: LOCAL HAPPENINGS, CHARLESTON R. E. LEE AS GENERAL-SHER- The controversy just concluded between the Couri Mercury on the strategic merits of the two command developed nothing new. The Sherman Cam ending at the city of Atlanta ably discussed and with justice to the dead Comma the great March to the sea b More brilliant achievement of the war and its in another colum South is satisfie happy endin When Coleman and Philip caught the first glimpse of the scrap of paper, tattered and yellow, they believed it to be some fragment of the Blue Book, which they themselves had discarded. The exposed surface was almost as free of print as if it had been treated with pot ash, and looked as insignificant as a dried leaf, or a section of corn-husk. Bromley, on the other hand, had examined it more closely, and just as Coleman began to laugh at him, he put out his hand and removed the scrap of paper from the twig that held it fast; and as he turned it over to the light, he was nearly as much surprised as his companions. The three were down on their knees in an instant, eagerly devouring the words of the headlines; and Philip being on the right, it happened that his eyes were the first to fall on the name of General Sherman. "Let us get back to the house at once, and determine what is to be done." Against undue haste Bromley remonstrated feebly, for he himself was laboring under unusual excitement. His eyes were so dimmed by a suffusion of something very like tearstears of anger - that he could read no further for the moment, so he put the paper carefully into his pocket, and picked up his torch and followed his comrades sulkily into the cavern. Upon Bromley's peculiar character, this new revelation had a depressing effect. He still entertained doubts. If the new hope was finally realized, his joy would be as deep and sincere as that of the others. For the present, the thought that they might all along have been deceived angered him. He had an inclination to stop even then and examine the paper more fully by torchlight; but the underground passage was long, and the pine-knot he carried was burning low. He felt obliged to hasten on after Coleman and Philip, who were now considerably in advance. They were still in view, however, and as he held the torch to one side, that which he saw far up the narrowing cavern had a softening effect on his conflicting emotions. He even laughed at the grotesque exhibition; for the small figures of Coleman and Philip were dancing and hugging each other and dashing their torches against the rocks in a way that made them look like mad salamanders in the circling flames and sparks. Such reckless enthusiasm was a condition of mind which George could not understand; but the possibility occurred to him that in their wild excitement they might set fire to the house as a "Sherman at the War Office!'" he cried. beacon-light to the people in the valley; for "What does that mean?" they could never get away from the plateau "It means we have been deceived," said without help from beyond the deep gorge. Coleman. "I" To prevent, if possible, any rash action on "Hurrah!" cried Philip, leaping up and the part of his more excited comrades, Bromdancing about until the rags of his tattered ley hurried his pace, and in the effort to overclothing fluttered in the sunlight. "Hurrah! take them, soon found himself leaping over obUncle Billy is alive! He never was killed at stacles and dodging corners of the rocky wall all! If that message was false, they were all in a wild race, which tended to excite even his false all lies! lies! What fools we have phlegmatic nature. As he ran on, that magical been? We must leave the mountain to-mor- sentence, "Sherman at the War Office," stood row-to-night." out in black letters before his eyes. What war "We have been the victims of an infamous office? If the paper referred to the war office ment. of the United States, it would have certainly so designated a department of a foreign governIf there were two governments, it would be necessary to say which war office was meant. If the old government in whose military service he had enlisted as a boy had regained its own, the phrase "Sherman at the War Office" would be natural and correct; and with this triumphant conviction he ran on the faster. On the other hand, if the Confederacy had gained everything! at the sickening thought, his feet became so heavy that his speed relapsed into a labored walk, and the oppressive air of the cavern seemed to stifle him. He would reach his companions as soon as possible, and compel them to examine the scrap of paper, and weigh its every word. It was beginning to dawn on Bromley that they had all acted like children; and when he finally came out at the entrance to the cave of the bats into the subdued light under the dark pines, he found Philip and Coleman waiting for him, and clamoring for another look at the scrap of paper. foresaw: that after the capture of Washington, Lee led his army across Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, living on the country, to meet the foreign allies of the Confederacy in the harbor of New York. It was certainly a brilliant military movement. Look," he cried, when the others were silent, "South is satisfied -happy ending —'" "But," said Philip, still obstinate, "what do you make of those five words 'Sherman at the War Office?' How do you get around that?" "Why, my dear boy," said Bromley, "this is only the heading of a newspaper article. It does not mean that General Sherman was at the war office in person. It simply refers to General Sherman's record in the War Department." After all their excitement, Coleman and Philip were obliged to give way to the convincing evidence revealed in the broken sentences. They were too tired by this time to consider the bits of foreign news, or notice the dates, and it was quite dark when they reached the house and went dejected and supperless to bed. There was not much to read in the fraction of a column that interested them most, but The next morning they got down the map, Philip and Coleman were determined to twist and looked ruefully at the States which Lee the meager context to the support of their new must have devastated in his triumphant march. hopes, and Bromley naturally took the opposite With the consent of the others, Bromley took a view, heartily wishing that the others might pen and traced the probable route by Baltiprove him mistaken. There was something in more, Philadelphia, and Trenton to the Jersey the reading of the broken sentences that tended coast of New York harbor. Bromley was to quiet the enthusiasm of Lieutenant Coleman, determined to lay out the line of march by and when Bromley could make himself heard, Harrisburg, and was only restrained by physical he called attention to the second sentence, force, which resulted in blotting the map at "The Sherman Campaign ending at the the point where his clumsy line was arrested. Atlanta, ably discussed," and "Justice to the They agreed, however, that Lee's victorious dead commander." What dead commander, if army had undoubtedly camped on the lower not General Sherman? If he had lived, his bay and along the Raritan river, in the councampaign would not have ended at Atlanta. try between Perth Amboy and the old battleIt was evident that there had been a newspaper field of Monmouth. They were convinced controversy in Charleston on the merits of two that the map was utterly wrong, for after such campaigns by Sherman and Lee - The Atlanta a march it was doubtful if there were any Campaign and the March to the Sea-what- United States at all. The disaster appeared ever that might be. The latter, Bromley more overwhelming than ever, and they hung thought, was clearly some achievement of Lee's. the map back on the wall-in another place, And then he remembered a prophecy he had however, for it was discovered that the rain made on the night when they had changed the had beaten through the logs and run down name of the plateau to Sherman Territory. across the Pacific side. Poor as the map was, "It proves," cried Bromley, "just what I they were determined to preserve it. (To be continued.) |