Part 35 (1/2)
Jennie paid no attention to the people about her. Her eyes were fixed on those tongues of flame that circled Sumter.
Anderson was firing now, his big guns flas.h.i.+ng their defiant answer to Beauregard's batteries. Jennie watched the lurid track of his sh.e.l.ls with sickening dread.
A man standing beside her in the gray dawn spoke.
”A waste of ammunition!”
The cannon boomed now with the regular throb of a great human pulse. The sobs and excited cries and prayers of women had become a part of the weird scene.
A young mother stood beside Jennie with a baby boy in her arms. He was delighted with the splendid display and the roar of the guns.
He pointed his fingers to the circling sh.e.l.ls and cried:
”'Ook, mamma, 'ook!”
The mother made no answer. Only with her hungry eyes did she follow their track to the sh.o.r.e. Her mate was there.
The baby clapped his hands and caught the rhythm of the throb and roar of the cannon in his little voice:
”Boom!--Boom!”
The sun rose from the sea, a ball of dull red fire glowing ominously through the haze of smoke that hung in the sky.
Hour after hour the guns pealed, the windows rattled and the earth trembled.
Couriers were das.h.i.+ng into the city with reports from the batteries.
Soldiers were marching through the streets. It was reported that the men from the fleet would attempt a landing.
The women rushed to the little iron balcony and watched the troops marching to repel them.
In the first line Jennie saw the tall figure of d.i.c.k Welford. He glanced upward, lifted his cap and held it steadily in his hand for four blocks until they turned and swept out of sight.
Jennie was leaning on the rail with tear-dimmed eyes.
”I wonder why that soldier took his hat off?” her aunt asked.
”Yes--I wonder!” was the soft answer.
By three o'clock it was known that not a man had been killed at either of the sh.o.r.e batteries and women began to smile and breathe once more.
The newsboys were screaming an extra.
Jennie hurried into the street and bought one.
In big black headlines she read:
RICHMOND AND WAs.h.i.+NGTON ABLAZE WITH EXCITEMENT!
THE NORTH WILD WITH RAGE