The Wedge of Gold Part 19

CHAPTER XVII.

ON THEIR TRAVELS.

But at last the hour for leaving came, and Sedgwick and Jordan took the train and proceeded without delay to Ma.r.s.eilles, where one of the steamers of the French Imperial Messenger Line was about to sail for Port Said. They at once secured transportation, went on board, and a few hours later the s.h.i.+p proceeded to sea. The weather was fair on the Mediterranean, and putting aside any personal sorrows, Jordan exerted himself to be cheerful for Sedgwick's sake.

"This are ther water on which men fust learned ter be sailors, arn't it, Jim?" he asked. "I mean whar they fust got inter ther notion of venturin'

out whar ther old sh.o.r.e-shaker could git a good hold on 'em?"

"Yes," replied Sedgwick. "This and the Red Sea. The Egyptians, the Carthagenians, the Phoenicians, the Syrians, the Greeks, the Romans, and a dozen other nations; later, the Venetians and Spaniards, and no one knows how many other nations, all learned how to build, navigate, and fight s.h.i.+ps on these waters. Think of it, Jordan, there were sea fights here almost seven hundred years before the Christ came. On this sea floated the fighting Biremes, Triremes, and Quinquiremes of the Greeks, Carthagenians, and Romans; and here the Egyptians and Phoenicians trained their s.h.i.+ps three thousand years before the crucifixion.

"Could this sea give up its dead--its dead men and its dead s.h.i.+ps; could they all come back as they looked the moment before they sank, they would make a panorama of the ages, and would show the progress of the world for five thousand years. Every mile square of this sea must be paved with things which were once glorious in life and power. Maybe below where we are sailing here, helmeted Roman soldiers, being transported to some point of contemplated conquest, went down. Here pirate craft have roamed; here lumbering wheat s.h.i.+ps have ploughed their way; here the watches have been set by the crews of a hundred nations; here sailors have been cursed in a thousand tongues. Along these sh.o.r.es s.h.i.+p-building had its birth; from these sh.o.r.es the s.h.i.+ps sailed out over these waters, engaging in foreign commerce, and the camel-owner on the land learned to hate the thing which on the water could carry the burden of many camels. One could sit all day and conjure up the ghosts that these blue waters are peopled with."

"Go ahead, Jim," said Jordan. "Thet sounds as it useter when yo' read to us in ther old house thar in Texas. What war thet book that told all 'bout Lissis and Ajax, the hoss-tamer Diamed, and the boss fighters, Killes and Hector, and ther pretty gal Helen, that raised all the hel-lo, and Dromine, the squar woman thet war Hector's wife, and hed the kid thet war afeerd of the old man's headgear?"

"That was the Iliad, Jordan," said Sedgwick, "the first book that we read. The story was the siege of Troy. That was a city over on the east sh.o.r.e of this very sea, and the Greeks went over there in their boats and besieged it for nine years before they captured it."

"How long ago war that, Jim?" asked Jordan.

"Three thousand years," was the reply.

"But they were fighters, them fellers?" said Jordan.

"Yes, great fighters," said Sedgwick.

"And their hosses war thoroughbreds, every one? Isn't thet so, Jim?" said Jordan.

"They were great horses, indeed," said Sedgwick.

"Powerful," said Jordan, "good for fo' mile heats, sho'? And thet other chap, Nais, didn't he settle round here somewhar?"

"You mean aeneas, Jordan. It was in Virgil that we read that. aeneas was of the family of that Priam who was king of Troy when the siege was on. He got away in a s.h.i.+p and finally landed and settled in southern Italy, off here to our left, and the legend goes that his descendants founded Rome."

"Yo' don't mean ter say he wur ther 'riginater uv ther Dagoes?" said Jordan.

"Well," said Sedgwick, with a laugh, "you know at that time there were wild tribes in Italy. Then there came in Greek colonies, and all races fused and a.s.similated, even as did the Romans and Sabines when the former captured a company of the women of the latter and made them their wives.

Out of it all arose the mighty Roman nation."

"They inbred with mustangs, so ter speak," said Jordan, "and these common Dagoes is whar they has bred back showin' bad stock in ther dam."

"May-be," said Sedgwick.

"Half-breeds is no good, as a rule, but that Nais war a good one."

"A good one, I guess," said Sedgwick.

"He's ther feller that Queen--what's her name?--O, yes, Queen Dido got soft on?" queried Jordan.

"Yes, Queen Dido," was the response.

"And she got looney-like when he c.u.m away, and uv nights would go down on ther sh.o.r.e and watch for him to c.u.m back?" said Jordan.

"So the legend has come down, and by the way," added Sedgwick, "her country was on this sea also, farther east and south, off to the right.

It was called Carthage."

"Say, Jim," said Jordan, "them folks was a good deal like we is, after all, wuzn't they? They'd fight for most nuthin'; they'd get gone on wimmen; liked good hosses; they'd trade and work tryin' ter get rich; and ef they hed hearn of a gold mine, they'd gone ter Arizony for it."

"I guess you are right, Jordan," said Sedgwick, "you always are. The world changes its methods, but the original man is about what he has always been."

"Wurn't it from thet place Carthage that ther black feller c.u.m what held ther Dagoes so level fur so long?" asked Jordan.

"Hannibal, do you mean?" asked Sedgwick.

"Ther same," replied Jordan.

"Yes," replied Sedgwick, "and a marvelous soldier and leader of men he was, to be sure."

"Indeed, he wur; but say, Jim, what do yo' calcerlate his pedigree wur?"

"Why, he came from a family of kings and fighting men," answered Sedgwick.

"Yes, I know; but I mean what breed war he? War he one of them ere Ethiopians?" said Jordan.

"No, I think not," answered his friend. "He was dark like an Arab or a Moor, but he belonged to a race that built cities and s.h.i.+ps, tamed horses, and fought scientific battles."

"'Zactly," said Jordan. "And he wur a fighter from way back?"

"Yes," responded Sedgwick, "when the few great captains in the world are thought of, he is about third or fourth in the list."

"Thay ain't much in men, Jim. Thar's everything in a man," said Jordan.

"That is what Napoleon used to say," was Sedgwick's answer.

"Did Napoleon say thet?" asked Jordan. "He war a brighter man than I thought, but it is true, don't yo' think, Jim?"

"I think I understand, but am not quite sure," said Sedgwick.

"I mean this," he answered, and then paused a moment. "Well, yo' see," he continued, "I wur at Chickamauga in Hill's division, I wur in thur ranks, and wur a boy; but I hed a general idee how things wur. I knowed whar all our men war; how your army war 'ranged, and when we went in shoutin', and all your right and left melted away like a fog as comes up from the gulf melts when the sun comes up in ther mornin', I sed to Ned Sykes, who wur next me in ther ranks, 'Ned, we's got 'em,' and Ned answered back, 'we's got 'em, sho'.'

"Well, it wur a clar field, 'ceptin' your center war still solid, and they fell back all but a thin line. We charged up onto thet and broke it, killed lot's uf 'em, and gobbled up lots more, but it tuk us a right smart time, fur them was stubborn chaps 'nd they fought desperate.

"Then when I looked up, I seen the hull business. Thet line hed been flung out ter hold us till ther rest cud fall back on better ground. Thar they wuz fixed, and when our lines wuz dressed and other charge ordered, and we went in again shoutin' jest like the fust time, they laid down flat and they 'gin it ter us so hot we couldn't stand it and hed ter fall back.

"And they kept a-entertainin' of us thetway all ther evenin'. Other divisions wur called up and sent in, but what wur left uv 'em c.u.m streamin' back, jest ez often ez it wur tried; a cavalry charge was ordered, but only a remnant c.u.m back, and we hed made no more impression seemin'ly than ther waves thet bucks up agin a ledge uv rocks.

"Them wur no better soldiers than ther rest uv ther army, but thar war a man directin' 'em, and lookin' all ther time so kinder majistical and lofty and so fur away from all fear, and ez tho' he hedn't a thot of failin', thet ther men, yo' see, tuk on ther same state o' mind, and ter fight 'em war no use. If the fust bullet we fired hed killed thet General, we would a-scooped the hull army by four o'clock. Thet's what I mean when I say: 'They ain't much in men, thar's everything in a man!'"