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“A Mystery of Heroism” takes place during an unnamed battle. The artillery for one regiment is stationed on the hill above the meadow that has become a battlefield, and the infantry shelters behind the hill. Shells explode, killing men on the field and the hilltop. The battle is loud and chaotic. A lieutenant of the battery rides towards the battle, holding his injured right arm in his left hand.
Fred Collins, safe beneath the hill with the infantry, wishes aloud that he had a drink of water. Collins’s companions mock him, asking why he doesn’t go and get his drink from the well across the battlefield. Collins indignantly tells them that he will get his drink. His companions don’t believe him.
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A soldier points out the lieutenant with the injured arm to his companions; he has been struck by a shell and lies face-down on the battlefield mangled and trapped under his horse.
Collins’s resentment towards his friends leads him to ask his superiors for permission to cross the battlefield and get water from the well. They are bemused by the request. When one of them asks if it isn’t a big risk to take for a drink of water, Collins says that he doesn’t know. His anger, which had driven his determination, is fading. Collins’s superiors grant him permission but can’t tell whether or not Collins actually wants to go.
Collins’s companions, stunned at his bravery, give him their canteens to fill and repeatedly ask if he’s really going to get the water. Collins insists that he is, and his companions watch him go. As Collins approaches the battlefield, he realizes that it was emotion that led him to this moment and finds himself somewhat surprised to be in such a dangerous situation. He is strangely unafraid, and wonders if that makes him a hero. He finds this to be a disappointing thought. Collins concludes that he has too much shame, which disqualifies him from being a hero.
A shell falls near Collins, startling him into a run. He runs across the meadow and reaches the ruins of a farmhouse, and he throws himself down beside the well. He lowers a canteen into the depths of the well, but it fills so slowly that Collins feels that the water is mocking him. Suddenly, he becomes afraid. He is desperate to fill the canteens quickly and return to safety. He sees the light of another exploding shell reflected on the wall of the well and jerks back. Abandoning the canteens, he picks up an old bucket and fills it. Collins then runs back onto the battlefield towards his regiment, carrying the sloshing bucket and certain that he will be struck by a shell at any moment.
The lieutenant of the battery with the injured arm lies dying on the ground, one leg trapped beneath his horse. He pushes himself up when Collins runs by, and rather than crying out to him in pain, politely requests a drink of water.
Collins, terrified, screams that he cannot stop. Still, as the lieutenant’s head lowers again, Collins turns around and runs back to him. Collins frantically turns the lieutenant over; the lieutenant sighs, wearing a small smile. Collins’s hands are shaking, and he splashes the water in the lieutenant’s face. Collins then turns and runs on towards his regiment.
When he arrives at the safety of the hill, his companions laugh and cheer. His superiors order him to pass the bucket around to the men. In a joking scuffle, however, the first two officers to take the bucket spills all the water on the ground.
