The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

without watching every bit of cover, every point on the landscape which could mask an enemy position or serve the same purpose for the command behind him.
    As he came up to the fire he thought that even the flames looked cold—stunted somehow—not because there had not been enough wood to feed them, but because the fire itself was old and tired. Blinking at the flames, he stood still, unaware of the fact that he was swaying on feet planted a little apart. He could not move, not of his own volition.
    Someone coughed in the shadow fringe beyond the light of those tired flames. It was a short hard cough, the kind which hurt Drew’s ears as much as its tearing must have hurt the throat which harbored it. He turned his head a fraction to see the bundle of blankets housing the cougher. Then the reins of mule and horse were twisted from his stiff fingers, and Kirby’s drawl broke through the coughing.
    “You, Larange, take ’em back to the picket line, will you?”
    The Texan’s hands closed about Drew’s upper arms just below the arch of his shoulders, steered him on, and then pressed him down into the limited range of the fire’s heat. From somewhere a tin plate materialized, and was in Drew’s hold. He regarded its contents with eyes which had trouble focusing.
    A thick liquid curled stickily back and forth across the surface of the plate as he strove to hold it level with trembling hands. Into the middle of that lake Kirby dropped white squares of Yankee crackers, and the pungent smell of molasses reached Drew’s nostrils, making his mouth water.
    Snatching at the crackers, he crammed his mouth with a dripping square coated with molasses. As he began to chew he knew that nothing before that moment had ever tasted so good, been so much an answer to all the disasters of the day. The world shrank; it was now the size of a battered tin plate smeared with molasses and the crumbs of stale crackers.
    Drew downed the mass avidly. Kirby was beside him again, a steaming tin cup ready.
    “This ain’t nothin’ but hotted water. But maybe it can make you think you’re drinkin’ somethin’ more interestin’.”
    With the tin cup in his hands, Drew discovered he could pay better attention to his surroundings. He glanced around the small circle of men who messed together. There was Larange, coming back from the horse lines, Webb, the Tennesseean from the mountains, Croff and Weatherby, Cherokees of the Indian Nations, and Kirby, of course. But—Drew was searching beyond the Texan for the other who should be there.
    Absently he sipped the hot water, almost afraid to ask a question. Then, just because of his inner fears, he forced out the words: “Where’s Boyd?”
    When Kirby did not answer, Drew’s head lifted. He put down his cup and caught the Texan’s arm.
    “He made it out of town; I know that. But where is he?”
    “Ovah theah.” Kirby nodded at the blanket-wrapped figure in the shadows. “Seems like he ain’t feelin’ too well.…”
    Drew wasted no time in getting to his feet. On his hands and knees, he scrambled across the space separating him from the roll of blankets. His questing hand smoothed across a ragged bullet tear in the top one, recognizing it to be Kirby’s by that mark. The pale oval of Boyd’s face turned toward him.
    “What’s the matter, boy?”
    Drew could hear the other’s harsh, fast breathing just as he had when they had found the injured boy at Harrisburg. Drew’s fingers touched a burning-hot cheek.
    “Got…me…sniffles.” Boyd’s mumble ended in another bout of those sharp coughs. “’Member—sniffles? Hot soup an’ bricks in bed, an’ onion cloth for the throat.…” He repeated all the Oak Hill remedies for a severe cold.
    Bricks to warm the bed, hot soup of Mam Gusta’s expert concocting, a thick onion poultice to ease the pain in throat and chest and draw out inflammation: every one of those were as far beyond reach now as Oak Hill itself! For a moment Drew was gripped with a panic born of utter frustration.
    “Shelly? You there, Shelly?” Boyd’s hoarse voice came from the dark. “I’m sure thirsty, Shelly!”
    Drew turned his head. Kirby had been behind him, but now the Texan was back to the fire, ladling more hot water out of the pot. When he returned, Weatherby was with him. Drew slipped his arm under that restlessly turning head to support the boy while the Texan held the tin cup to Boyd’s lips. They got a few mouthfuls into him before he