Beyond a distant fringe of trees the muddy James went murmuring down its
muddy banks, where the blue cranes waited solemnly for the ebbing tide;
where the crows cawed hoarsely in their busy, reeling flight, and the
buzzards swung high above the marshes. Yet even in this waste of
listless desolation came the echoed boom of heavy guns far down the
river, where the "Rebs" and "Yanks" were pounding one another lazily.

From the woods which skirted the carriage road a man appeared--a thin,
worn man, in a uniform of stained and tattered gray--a man who peered
from right to left, as a hunted rabbit might, then darted across the
road and plunged into the briery underbrush. Noiselessly he made his way
to the now deserted cabin, creeping, crawling till he reached a point
below an open window, then slowly raised himself and looked within.

"Virgie!" he whispered cautiously. "Virgie!"

No answer came. For a moment the man leaned dizzily against the
windowsill, his eyes fast closed with a nameless dread, till he caught
his grip again and entered the open door.

"Virgie!" he called, in a louder tone, moving swiftly but unsteadily
toward the adjoining room. He flung its door open sharply, almost
angrily; yet the name on his lips was tender, trembling, as he called:
"Virgie! Virgie!"

In the loneliness of dread, he once more leaned for support against the
wall, wondering, listening to the pounding of his heart, to the murmur
of the muddy James, and the fall of a flake of plaster loosened by the
dull reverberation of a distant gun; then suddenly his eye was caught
by the kettle simmering on the fire, and he sighed in swift relief.