Rhett turned the horse's slow feet westward from Peachtree and the wobbling wagon jounced into the rutty lane with a violence that wrenched an abruptly stifled moan from Melanie.Dark trees interlaced above their heads,dark silent houses loomed up on either side and the white palings of fences gleamed faintly like a row of tombstones.The narrow street was a dim tunnel,but faintly through the thick leafy ceiling the hideous red glow of the sky penetrated and shadows chased one another down the dark way like mad ghosts.The smell of smoke came stronger and stronger,and on the wings of the hot breeze came a pandemonium of sound from the center of town,yells,the dull rumbling of heavy army wagons and the steady tramp of marching feet.As Rhett jerked the horse's head and turned him into another street,another deafening explosion tore the air and a monstrous skyrocket of flame and smoke shot up in the west.
“That must be the last of the ammunition trains,”Rhett said calmly.“Why didn't they get them out this morning,the fools!There was plenty of time.Well,too bad for us.I thought by circling around the center of town,we might avoid the fire and that drunken mob on Decatur Street and get through to the southwest part of town without any danger.But we've got to cross Marietta Street somewhere and that explosion was near Marietta Street or I miss my guess.”
“Must—must we go through the fire?”Scarlett quavered.
“Not if we hurry,”said Rhett and,springing from the wagon,he disappeared into the darkness of a yard.When he returned he had a small limb of a tree in his hand and he laid it mercilessly across the horse's galled back.The animal broke into a shambling trot,his breath panting and labored,and the wagon swayed forward with a jolt that threw them about like popcorn in a popper.The baby wailed,and Prissy and Wade cried out as they bruised themselves against the sides of the wagon.But from Melanie there was no sound.
As they neared Marietta Street,the trees thinned out and the tall flames roaring up above the buildings threw street and houses into a glare of light brighter than day,casting monstrous shadows that twisted as wildly as torn sails flapping in a gale on a sinking ship.
Scarlett's teeth chattered but so great was her terror she was not even aware of it.She was cold and she shivered,even though the heat of the flames was already hot against their faces.This was hell and she was in it and,if she could only have conquered her shaking knees,she would have leaped from the wagon and run screaming back the dark road they had come,to the refuge of Miss Pittypat's house.She shrank closer to Rhett,took his arm in fingers that trembled and looked up at him for words,for comfort,for something reassuring.In the unholy crimson glow that bathed them,his dark profile stood out as clearly as the head on an ancient coin,beautiful,cruel and decadent.At her touch he turned to her,his eyes gleaming with a light as frightening as the fire.To Scarlett,he seemed as exhilarated and contemptuous as if he got strong pleasure from the situation,as if he welcomed the inferno they were approaching.
“Here,”he said,laying a hand on one of the long-barreled pistols in his belt.“If anyone,black or white,comes up on your side of the wagon and tries to lay hand on the horse,shoot him and we'll ask questions later.But for God's sake,don't shoot the nag in your excitement.”
“I—I have a pistol,”she whispered,clutching the weapon in her lap,perfectly certain that if death stared her in the face,she would be too frightened to pull the trigger.
“You have?Where did you get it?”
“It's Charles'.”
“Charles?”
“Yes,Charles—my husband.”
“Did you ever really have a husband,my dear?”he whispered and laughed softly.
If he would only be serious!If he would only hurry!
“How do you suppose I got my boy?”she cried fiercely.
“Oh,there are other ways than husbands—”
“Will you hush and hurry?”
But he drew rein abruptly,almost at Marietta Street,in the shadow of a warehouse not yet touched by the flames.
“Hurry!”It was the only word in her mind.Hurry!Hurry!
“Soldiers,”he said.
The detachment came down Marietta Street,between the burning buildings,walking at route step,tiredly,rifles held any way,heads down,too weary to hurry,too weary to care if timbers were crashing to right and left and smoke billowing about them.They were all ragged,so ragged that between officers and men there were no distinguishing insignia except here and there a torn hat brim pinned up with a wreathed “C.S.A.”Many were barefooted and here and there a dirty bandage wrapped a head or arm.They went past,looking neither to left nor right,so silent that had it not been for the steady tramp of feet they might all have been ghosts.
“Take a good look at them,”came Rhett's jibing voice,“so you can tell your grandchildren you saw the rear guard of the Glorious Cause in retreat.”
Suddenly she hated him,hated him with a strength that momentarily overpowered her fear,made it seem petty and small.She knew her safety and that of the others in the back of the wagon depended on him and him alone,but she hated him for his sneering at those ragged ranks.She thought of Charles who was dead and Ashley who might be dead and all the gay and gallant young men who were rotting in shallow graves and she forgot that she,too,had once thought them fools.She could not speak,but hatred and disgust burned in her eyes as she stared at him fiercely.
As the last of the soldiers were passing,a small figure in the rear rank,his rifle butt dragging the ground,wavered,stopped and stared after the others with a dirty face so dulled by fatigue he looked like a sleepwalker.He was as small as Scarlett,so small his rifle was almost as tall as he was,and his grime-smeared face was unbearded.Sixteen at the most,thought Scarlett irrelevantly,must be one of the Home Guard or a runaway schoolboy.
