It is a brevet
of financial importance. Learning his friend is a veteran of the
"Stars and Bars," and a Virginian, the Westerner pledges many a cup
to their common cause. To the battle-torn flag of the Confederacy,
now furled forever.
As the train rattles down Echo Canyon, Peyton tells of the hopes
once held of a rising in the West.
Woods is interested. When Peyton mentions "Maxime Valois," the
Croesus grasps his hand convulsively.
"Did you serve with him?" Joe queries with eagerness. "He was my
pardner and chum."
"He died in my arms at Peachtree Creek," answers Peyton.
Joe embraces Peyton. "He was a game man, Colonel."
Peyton answers: "The bravest man I ever saw. I often think of
him, in the whirl of that struggle for De Gress's battery. Lying
on the sod with the Yankee flag clutched in his hand, its silk was
fresh-striped with his own heart's blood. The last sound he heard
was the roar of those guns, as we turned them on the enemy."
"God! What a fight for that battery!" The Californian listens,
with bated breath, to the Virginian. He tells him of the youthful
quest for gold.
The war brotherhood of the two passes in sad review. Peyton tells
him of the night before Valois' death.
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