VI
SECOND LIEUTENANT GRANT
The Volunteer section of the trenches, extending
right and left back of the naval battery, had not
escaped the fire of the Mexican guns. It was filled
with the blue-coats and blue-caps, as before; but
shot and shell had ripped it, squads were repairing
it, under fire, by throwing up fresh sand and stowing
the sandbags more securely. The other men
crouched nervously, their muskets grasped, as if
they were awaiting the word to charge. Some of
them grinned at Jerry, when he paused to look in;
they leveled jokes at him.
"Did you get blown up, bub?"
"How's the weather, where you've been?"
"Does your maw know you're out?"
But Jerry pressed on again, "following his nose," and trying to dodge shell fragments; tried a short cut among the dunes, rounded one of the numerous lagoons or marshes, where soldiers off duty were washing their socks; and sooner than he had expected he had entered the camp of the Regulars, once more.
He could tell it by the looks of it. The men were better "set up" than average, seemed well cared for, acted business like; their older officers were brusque, the younger were stiff-backed and slim-waisted, and as a rule they all sat or stood apart from the soldiers.
The hour was after noon; he knew this by the
