How does the youth initally react when faced with the reality of battle?

In my copy of the novel this page is located in Chapter Five. The Youth's reaction is to momentarily panic that he'd forgotten to load his gun.

"As he caught sight of them the youth was momentarily startled by a thought that perhaps his gun was not loaded. He stood trying to rally his faltering intellect so that he might recollect the moment when he had loaded, but he could not."