After that I was sick at my stomach again; and not clear in my mind what they were about.
I gazed around out of fevered eyes, and saw dead men lying near me. Suddenly the full horror of this civil war seemed to seize my senses;—all the shame of such a conflict, a black disgrace upon us here in County Tryon.
"Nick!" I cried, "in God's name give those men burial."
"Let them lie, damn them!" said Godfrey, sullenly.
"But they were our neighbors! I—I can't endure such a business.... And there are wolves in the tamaracks."
"Let wolf eat wolf," muttered Luysnes. But he drew his knife and went into the house. And I heard Balty's body drop when he cut it down.
Nick came over to me, where I lay on a frame of alders, over which a blanket had been thrown, and he promised that a burial party should come out here as soon as they got me into camp.
So two of my men lifted the litter, and, feeling sick and drowsy, I closed my eyes and felt the slow waves of pain sweep me with every step the litter-bearers took.
I had been lying in a kind of stupor upon my blanket, aware of dark figures passing to and fro before the lurid radiance of our watch fire, yet not heeding what they said and did, save only when I saw Nick and Luysnes go away carrying two ditch-spades. And was vaguely contented to have the dead put safe from wolves.